Hand-painted Furniture Continued
Keeping a vanishing tradition alive

One of perhaps a handful of artists who still practices the centuries-old technique of casein, or milk painting, lives and works right around the corner in Glenside.

Marie-Colette Dupont-Nivet, born in New York to an American father and French mother, was raised in Paris from the age of two. Returning to America about 13 years ago, she lived in various parts of the Delaware Valley, including Doylestown, before settling in what she calls “the perfect place for me to work.”

“There is a large garden with a stream here and many flowers in the summer,” she says with a strong French accent. “There are cabinetmakers and furniture makers nearby, and it is like a little village here.”

She is well established in this “little village” after eight years of working in her large, bright and airy studio. Here is where customers regularly bring chests, tables and small antique items for her to transform with her unique method of painting.

After attending the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Marie-Colette lived for a time in Strasbourg, a town in the Alsace region of France, near the German border, where she discovered traditional painted furniture in a small museum there which “enchanted her.”

“I wondered, ‘how did they manage to have such color,’” she remembers. “This was not the results you get with oil or acrylic.”

Through this fortuitous visit, she met her mentor, Msr. Nussbaum, with whom she worked for several years, learning the technique and perfecting her process. While working as a restorer for the Musee Alsacien de Strasbourg, she was also creating her own pieces for private clients. While in Europe, she followed more closely the patterns of the traditional and historic pieces at the museum. Once in America, she spread her creative wings, and developed her own style, reacting to the freer atmosphere she felt here.

While in Strasbourg, she discovered that country cabinetmakers of the 18th century often worked with inexpensive pine. To add interest to the flatness of the wood, they used to paint on faux wood, called graining, and they used combs and feathers to add interest to it.

To hold the pieces together, they used a “very hard and very good glue” made with a milk base, ammonia and water. Then they would mix this glue with pigments and decorate the furniture with colors that were rich and deep. The furniture was of a simple design and inferior wood, which the beauty of the paintings helped to disguise.

“This was called ‘art populaire’ or folk art,” she explains. “After a while, they went further by adding scenes from the world around them – flowers, birds, buildings – but everything with a primitive look. These weren’t trained painters, but their work was charming and full of heart, which is what took me when I first saw it in the museum,” she adds.

She still obtains the pigments for her work from a studio in Alsace that manufactures them. “I think he’s the last one in Europe who supplies this. The German artists go there to pick up pigments. I can buy them in New York City or Paris, but there they are very expensive.”

Marie-Colette chooses her furniture pieces from two suppliers, one an emigrant from Prague who creates pieces of a “more German shape with cut corners and large top and bottom moldings.” The other cabinetmaker provides her with more contemporary pieces, including entertainment centers. Sometimes she finds unique pieces in antique markets.

Marie-Colette laments the disappearance of the tradition that she practices, but is determined to keep it alive in her “village.” She sells her work through two shops in Chestnut Hill: Secret Garden and Garden Gate Shop. She also encourages people to visit the Barnes Foundation on the Main Line where they can see fine examples of casein painting.

Marie-Colette is adamant that the old ways are the best. “When you use acrylic on wood, you are working with plastic on top of the wood. After years, the plastic coating can distort the color and the beauty is not the same. What I do, the color becomes more beautiful with time.”

Beginning with a piece of stripped furniture, she brushes on an ocher base and shellacs and sands the piece lightly. The piece is then painted with a dark glaze to imitate wood. This “false wood” is then brushed lightly with a feather or comb to give it a wood-grained appearance. Then, Marie-Colette paints on her characteristically primitive landscapes, animals and floral pieces. Finally, several coats of shellac are applied to the sides of the piece. A cellulose varnish is used on areas that will receive heavy use, like a tabletop for example. As the very last step in the process, Marie-Colette waxes the piece with beeswax.

The married mother of three college-age children loves variety in her work and enjoys the interaction with her customers.

“Even the same piece of furniture for two different clients would be totally different. People talk about their memories or show me pictures that I work from. They give me ideas. The customer doesn’t only buy the piece; they help me create it. It’s good for me and it’s good for the people. It makes them dream and be creative.”

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