DANIEL MAROT: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGNER

Daniel Marot (1661-1752) was a son of the French court architect Jean Marot (1619-1679). Members of the Marot family were among the many Huguenots who fled north to the Republic of the Seven United Provinces (Dutch Republic) after the abolition of the edict of Nantes in 1685.

Marot was trained as a dessinateur in France, in the tradition of artists such as Jean Le Pautre and Jean Bérain. A dessinateur provided the designs for carpenters, gardeners, weavers, smiths, woodcutters and cabinetmakers. His earliest signed works are engravings that were created for volumes on French architecture published by his father, who clearly was a great influence on his development as an architectural draughtsman.

Portrait of Daniel Marot
by Jacob Gole, after a now-lost painting by James Parmentier

Soon after his arrival in The Netherlands, Marot came to the service of the courtly circle of the house of Orange, who were stadtholders at the time. Stadtholder William III, together with his wife Mary II would become joint monarchs of England, Scotland and Ireland as well as elected stadholders in the Dutch Republic.  

Marot brought the fashionable French style of Louis XIV to the Netherlands and England, for which he found an eager clientele amongst the ruling house of Orange, their courtiers, the wealthy merchant classes and some municipal commissioners. Throughout his long career he would remain faithful to the Louis XIV style, although his approach and adaptation of the style would vary and a variety of materials and influences would be implemented in his designs.

Some of the locations across Europe associated with designs by Marot, including sites he lived and worked.

Soon after his arrival in The Netherlands, in 1686, Marot settled in The Hague to be near his primary clients. In 1694,  he moved to London at the invitation of King Stadtholder William III, moving back to The Netherlands at the death of his royal patrons.  He now chose Amsterdam as a base, to work for a range of clients. In Amsterdam he acquired a series of houses. In 1707 he bought a house in the Sint Antoniesbreestraat, and between 1715 and 1747 he owned a house on the Reguliersgracht.  From 1720, he returned to The Hague and lived at Noordeinde 164 until his death in 1752. He was buried in the Grote Kerk.

He is best remembered for the series of self-published prints. These would depict actual projects as well as proposals and designs that were never realised. These prints show his incredible diversity as a designer, ranging from grand architectural schemes to tiny objects such as pocket watches.

Several architectural projects survive with a sound attribution to Marot, however, most realised buildings and structures have undergone significant changes over time. His oeuvre also included a significant number of ephemeral projects such as gardens and temporary festive decorations which are even more prone to interventions and loss of context. These changes over time, as well as deterioration and conservation issues related to fragile materials, and the dispersion of items over various collections and locations,  are forming obstacles for our appreciation of his holistic design principles and vision that might be best described as a Gesamtkunstwerk, avant la lettre.

With this project, we aim to explore the holistic and interdisciplinary aspects of his work and re-evaluate his contribution to material culture.

Explore some of the many disciplines Marot provided designs for in the dedicated pages.

Key Readings

These are some of the key references related to the work of Daniel Marot, and his network. Further information can also be obtained from objects in museums and collections such as the Rijksmuseum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Het Loo Palace Museum, and the Royal Collection Trust.

Bowett, A. (2007) ‘The engravings of Daniel Marot’, Furniture History, 43, pp. 85–100. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23410054.

Burkom, F. van et al. (2001) Leven in toen: vier eeuwen Nederlands interieur in beeld. Stichting Manifestatie Historisch Interieur 2001. Available at: https://cultureelerfgoed.nl/publicaties/leven-in-toen (Accessed: 24 September 2018).

Dencher, A. (2020) ‘Daniel Marot (1661–1751) and the ›painted staircase‹ in the united provinces’, in Hoppe, S., Lass, H., and Karner, H. (eds) Deckenmalerei um 1700 in Europa: Höfe und Residenzen. Hirmer Verlag GmbH.

Deutsch, K. (2011) ‘« Marot. Il se nommait Jean… » Essay on the architectural representations of a 17th century printmaker’, Nouvelles de l’estampe. OpenEdition, (236), pp. 4–23. doi: 10.4000/estampe.1125.

Fock, W. C. et al. (2001) Het Nederlandse interieur in beeld, 1600-1900. Waanders.

‘Gervase Jackson-Stops (1947-95)’ (1996) Architectural History, pp. 222–235. doi: 10.2307/1568614.

Jackson-stops, G. (1980) ‘Daniel Marot and the 1st Duke of Montagu’, in Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art / Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek. Bussum: Brill, pp. 244–262. doi: 10.1163/22145966-90000525.

Jacobsen, H. (no date) Luxury and power: the material world of the Stuart diplomat 1660-1714. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lane, A. (1959) ‘Delftse tegels uit Hampton Court en Daniel Marot ’ s werkzaamheid aldaar’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 7(1), pp. 12–21. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40381211.

Marot, D. et al. (1988) Daniel Marot, vormgever van een deftig bestaan: architectuur en interieurs van Haagse stadspaleizen. Walburg Pers.

Murdoch, T. V. (Tessa V. (ed.) (1992) Boughton House: the English Versailles. London: London : Faber and Faber/Christies, 1992].

Ozinga, M. D. (1938) Daniel Marot, de schepper van den Hollandschen Lodewijk XIV-stijl. Amsterdam.

Turpin, A. (1999) ‘A table for Queen Mary’s water gallery at Hampton Court’, Apollo, pp. 3–14.