Helen Jacobsen Boeken

Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, Inspiring Walt Disney explores the influences of the art and architecture of France on Walt Disney and his studio artists, highlighting in particular the Disney classics of hand-drawn animation, Cinderella (1950) and Beauty and the Beast (1991).Pairing preparatory material from these films – including concept art for talking furniture and fairy-tale castles – with masterpieces from the eighteenth century reveals hidden sources of inspiration and allows us to appreciate the extraordinary talents behind Disney animated films and French decorative arts. Just as the dynamic, twisting movements of the Rococo sought to breathe life into what was essentially inanimate – silver, porcelain, furniture – so too did Disney animators seek to create the illusion of movement, action and emotion.Illustrated with innovative works by artists such as Mary Blair, Hans Bacher and Peter J. Hall, and the animated and anthropomorphic furniture, Sèvres porcelain and gilt bronze of rococo designers, the catalogue explores the shared creative roots of these two seemingly disparate artistic realms and looks to revitalise the feelings of excitement, awe and marvel, which both eighteenth-century craftsmen and Disney animators sought to spark in their audiences.

French eighteenth-century gilt-bronze objects, known as bronzes d'ameublement, include clocks, fire dogs, mounted Sèvres porcelain, wall lights, candlesticks and candelabra, and epitomise the levels of luxury achieved in Parisian interiors. Highly expensive and expertly wrought, they illustrate the heights of skilled craftsmanship achieved by French bronze workers as well as showcasing the wealth and connoisseurship of their owners. The book draws on exceptionally fine pieces by leading makers from the Wallace Collection's renowned collection and assesses them both as works of art and as important elements within Parisian interiors of the day. In doing so it demonstrates how these works were directly linked to fashion and the neo-classical movement in art and were part of a unified aesthetic promoted by the greatest designers and commissioned by the most influential patrons. An extended introduction places gilt-bronzes in the context of French interior design and provides information about their manufacture. The book is lavishly illustrated throughout with new photographs of highlights from the Wallace Collection making it a true celebration of the bronze maker's art.