'
Nicolas Lupot'' (4 December 1758 – 14 August 1824) was one of the most illustrious French
luthier
A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...
s (violin makers) of his time.
Lupot was born in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
. He was apprenticed to his father and worked in Orléans until 1794. Soon after, he moved to Paris, where he was appointed violin maker to the king (1815), and to the Conservatoire of Paris (1816). This latter post involved furnishing instruments (of the whole violin family) awarded to first-prize winners.
Lupot was ordered by King
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...
to make an orchestra of
stringed instruments
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the st ...
which were to be decorated/embellished with the coat of arms of France. He ambitiously undertook in 1820 to replace all the instruments of the royal orchestra with new ones of his own make, but death in 1824 prevented him from fulfilling this plan.
He frequently received the title of "The French
Stradivarius
A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are co ...
" and in
Mirecourt
Mirecourt () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mirecourt is known for lace-making and the manufacture of musical instruments, particularly those of the Violin family. Inhabitants are called Mirecurtiens.
...
there is a street named after him. Modeling (except a few after
Guarnerius
The Guarneri (, , ), often referred to in the Latinized form Guarnerius, is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati ...
and
Amati
Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nicolò A ...
) always after that of Stradivarius and he imitated that genius more minutely than anybody else had or has ever done. This is why there is such a refreshing variety in his productions some of broad proportions, others more normal and some under the recognized full sizes as well as a few of long pattern.
"Lupot was an important French maker, modeling his instruments after Stradivari."
Quotes
"The first violin maker of the family was his grandfather Laurent Lupot (baptised in
Mirecourt
Mirecourt () is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France. Mirecourt is known for lace-making and the manufacture of musical instruments, particularly those of the Violin family. Inhabitants are called Mirecurtiens.
...
, 11 August 1696; died in Orléans, after 1762). He worked in
Plombières
Plombières (; german: Bleyberg or ''Bleiberg'', nl, Blieberg; wa, So-on-Mont-d'-Plomb) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium.
On 1 January 2006, Plombières had a total population of 10,401. The total are ...
(near
Epinal) about 1725, then in
Lunéville
Lunéville ( ; German, obsolete: ''Lünstadt'' ) is a commune in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle.
It is a subprefecture of the department and lies on the river Meurthe at its confluence with the Vezouze.
History
Lun ...
for
Stanisław Leszczyński
Stanisław I Leszczyński (; lt, Stanislovas Leščinskis; french: Stanislas Leszczynski; 20 October 1677 – 23 February 1766), also Anglicized and Latinized as Stanislaus I, was twice King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and at v ...
's court from 1738 to 1756, and finally in Orléans from 1762 until his death. His eldest son, François (i) (born in Plombières, 5 July 1725; died in Paris, 25 August 1805), Nicolas' father, left Lunéville to work in Germany as violin maker to the Duke of Württemberg. He settled in Stuttgart, where Nicolas was born, then in Ludwigsburg. In 1768 he returned to France and joined his father in Orléans, where he opened his own workshop and acquired the sobriquet François Lupot d'Orléans."
"Although the work of Stradivari was Lupot's guide, he was anything but a slavish copyist. What he did grasp as well as any Stradivari follower was incomparable good taste in workmanship; within this discipline he gave expression to his own admirable ideas, as described by Sibire (1806). His rich orange-red varnish, perfectly transparent, gave the final touch. Occasionally he copied Guarneri del Gesù, whose violins were rapidly achieving fame in the first two decades of the 19th century. Lupot's production was almost entirely of violins; violas and cellos are a rarity. The aristocratic tonal qualities of his instruments have always been well appreciated by players. Lupot's most important pupil was
Charles François Gand, who also became his successor through having married a young girl that Lupot considered as his adopted daughter. Another was Sébastien-Philippe Bernardel. Lupot's influence was strongly felt in Paris throughout the 19th century; above all, he created the standard by which the rest of the great French school is judged." – Charles Beare/Sylvette Milliot
"
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume
Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (7 October 1798 – 19 March 1875) was a French luthier, businessman, inventor and winner of many awards. His workshop made over 3,000 instruments.
Early life
Vuillaume was born in Mirecourt, where his father and gr ...
achieved recognition as the greatest technical genius of his time, surpassed in French violin making only by Nicholas Lupot." – Smithsonian Institution
"N. Lupot instruments especially those made in his mature period in Paris, are simply superb" – Gennady Filimonov
"...the king of French artists, Nicolas Lupot." – ''The Violin – Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators'' by George Hart, 1909
"Lupot is known to have set the bar in workmanship and tone for the French in the 19th century." – Antonio Strad Violin
"The Lupot family are claimed as natives of Mirecourt, although the greatest of them, Nicolas, whose violins run some of the finest specimens of Cremona very hard, was a native of Stuttgart. His father was a Frenchman and came from Mirecourt. All his traditions belong to Mirecourt, and these, as we all know, he carried with him to Paris, where he died in 1824, and was succeeded by Gand. The names of Maucotel, Medard,
Mennegand, Silvestre, and Derazay, and above all Vuillaume, must always shed an imperishable lustre upon the little town in the Vosges mountains." - ''Old Violins and Violin Lore'' by H. R. Haweis.
References
*Cozio archiv
Nicolas Lupot*''The Violin – Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators'' by George Hart 1909
*S. A. Sibire: ''La chélonomie ou le parfait luthier'' (Paris, 1806, 2/1823/R)
*W. H., A. F. and A. E. Hill: ''Antonio Stradivari: His Life and Work'', (1644–1737) (London, 1902/R, 2/1909)
*J. Roda: ''Bows for Musical Instruments of the Violin Family'' (Chicago, 1959)
*W. C. Retford: ''Bows and Bow Makers'' (London, 1964)
*
*
*''Les Luthiers Parisiens aux XIX et XX siecles'', vol. 4, "Nicolas Lupot et sa famille" by Sylvette Milliot, published by Édition les Amis des la Musique, 2010
*Jost Thöne: ''Italian & French Violin Makers''
*''Les Trésors de la Lutherie Française du XIXe siècle'', Paris c. 1992
Lupot died in Paris, aged 65.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lupot, Nicolas
1758 births
1824 deaths
Businesspeople from Stuttgart
Luthiers from Paris