DUBOIS, Jacques
(b. 1694, Pontoise, d. 1763, Paris)

Biography

French cabinetmaker. He was a descendant of a family of French ébénistes, probably learned the craft in the workshop of his half-brother, Nöel Gérard, an important cabinetmaker and dealer of the 1720s and 1730s.

He was an independent workman before becoming a maitre-ébéniste in 1742 and a juror of his guild from 1752 to 1754. He was an exacting and talented cabinetmaker with a cosmopolitan clientele, specializing in luxury items decorated with Japanese lacquer and marquetry. His pieces were often sober, and this complemented the power, beauty and quality of his vigorous and exuberant bronzes with their opposing Rococo curves in the Louis XV style. His stamped works include a corner-cupboard (c. 1745; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) for Count Jan Klemens, based on a design by Nicolas Pineau, a lacquered bureau for Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans (1725-85), and the 'de Vergennes' marquetry bureau (both Musée du Louvre, Paris), a commode (Palazzo Reale, Genoa) for Louis XV's daughter Louise-Elizabeth (1727-59) and a large lean-to secrétaire with doors and windows (1770; Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire). After Dubois's death, his son René Dubois (1737-1799) continued the workshop, using his father's mark but producing rigorously Neo-classical furniture.

The inventory made after Jacques Dubois's death reveals a large workshop with a varied range of production including secrétaires, writing desks, pedestals, and clocks, decorated with floral marquetry or with Chinese or Japanese lacquer.