Claude Aimé Chenavard, décorateur et ornemaniste

Claude-Aimé Chenavard (1794-1838) : decorator and ornementalist. Although he is largely forgotten today, during his lifetime Claude-Aimé Chenavard enjoyed an exceptional reputation as a designer of ornaments for industry, a profession which foreshadows that of our contemporary designers, and one which Chenavard helped create. He was born at Lyons, the son of a manufacturer of furnishing fabrics (his family is in no way related to those of the painter Paul Chenavard or the architect Antoine-Marie Chenavard). Our Chenavard trained in his father’s firm before going on to industrial design and to the propagation of industrial art in general. He was particularly keen to revive the art of the French Renaissance and two of his most important creations bear witness to this desire : a stained-glass window dedicated to the inventions of the Renaissance period, made in the stained-glass workshop which Brongniart had recently founded at the Manufacture of Sèvres, and, secondly, the « Grand Vase de la Renaissance », also made at Sèvres. Chenavard was also inspired by other styles, however, and may be seen as an important precursor of eclecticism.