Corner cabinet (encoignure) (one of a pair) 1740 - 1754

This corner cabinet was made in France in the mid-18th century by Bernard van Risenburgh. It's an example of the “chinoiserie” style, which was popular among the French elite at that time. But what does it mean to decorate a French cabinet with imagery of an imagined China? It tells us a lot about the social and institutional context in which this object was made. Colonization and trade with China were well underway and objects and artworks were traveling back and forth, even if people were not. The elite displayed art like this to show their wealth, their worldliness, and their place at the top of French society. These kinds of objects and images helped to cement the social hierarchy. As art historians, we look at the object, but we also look at trade routes, social hierarchies, and colonial histories to understand the meaning of an object like this.