Praise to the Sculpture 1600-1900

Praise of the Sculpture 1600-1900 • MAY 19 TO JULY 3, 2021

Praise of the Sculpture 1600-1900

Praise of the Sculpture 1600-1900 •

MAY 19 TO JULY 3, 2021

GALERIE PERRIN Place Beauvau – 98, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré – 75008 Paris – France Tél. +331 42 65 01 38 - Fax. +331 49 24 04 08 galerieperrin.com | contact@galerieperrin.com

Contents

1.

FRENCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY Apollo of the Belvedere 9

2.

FRENCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY

3.

SCHOOL OF VERSAILLES, 17TH CENTURY

4.

ROBERT LE LORRAIN (1666-1743)

5.

GIUSEPPE MARIA MAZZA (1653-1741)

6.

ANTOINE-MARIE MELOTTE (1722-1795)

7.

THOMAS-GERMAIN DUVIVIER (1735-1814)

8.

Saint Catherine carried by Angels at Mount Sinai 12 Louis XIV And Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche costumed as Knight Ruggiero and Angelica 18 Mars and Venus 24 Allegory of the city of Bologna 32 The Battle of the Amazons after Rubens Victory of Cesar over Pompey (The Battle of Pharsalus ?) 36 Still life with globe, palette and antique sculpture 44

JOHANN VALENTIN SONNENSCHEIN (1749-1828)

The Crowning of a Poet 48

9.

JOSEPH-CHARLES MARIN (1759-1834) Silenus with two Children 56

10.

JEAN-JACQUES DE BOISSIEU (1736-1810)

11.

GEORGES JACQUOT (1794-1874)

12.

AUGUSTE PREAULT (1809-1879)

13.

JEAN-JOSEPH CARRIES (1855-1894)

14.

ODILON REDON (1840-1916)

15.

JEAN CARRIÈS (1855-1894)

16.

HUGO HÖPPENER (1868-1948), KNOWN AS FIDUS

Vanities 62 Young Faun and Bacchante 66 Silence 72 The Novice 78 Woman in the nude in enchanted forest 84

Jules Breton With Hat 88 Giordano Bruno 94

FRENCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY

1

Apollo of the Belvedere Paris, circa 1680-1690.

MATERIAL Golden brown patinated bronze.

DIMENSIONS H. 55 cm (21 5/8 in.), base: 22 x 21,5 cm (8 5/8 x 8 ½ in.).

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Roman copy of a Greek original, Apollo of the Belvedere, marble, 2nd century A. D. , Rome, Vatican, Pio-Clementino Museum.

Celebrated since its discovery near Rome towards the end of the 15th century, the Apollo of the Belvedere was first owned by Cardinal Giulio Della Rovere, who displayed it in the gardens of his Roman palazzo (Fig. 1). After becoming pope in 1503 under the name of Julius II, the new pontiff, great admirer of the arts and a patron of Raphael and Michelangelo, brought the antique sculpture to the Vatican Palace in 1508 and installed it in the Belvedere Court in 1511.

Such public arrangement immediately attracted visitors, collectors and artists who came to admire this nude life-size marble, one of the first to be excavated in Rome. The statue became so notorious that it took the name of Apollo of the Belvedere.

The first known copy is a bronze reduction attributed to L’Antico, a notorious sculptor, art restorer and bronzier at the service of the House of Gonzaga, and later Mantova towards the end of the 15th century (Fig. 2). L’Antico created an extremely luxurious piece, restoring the arch that Apollo was to bend, removing the stump on which climbed the snake Python, and highlighting the details with gold.

Engraved during the first decade of the 16th century by Marcantonio Raimondi, the Apollo of the Belvedere gained notoriety all across Europe.

Its perfect proportions and solemn yet narrative attitude revolutionized contemporary artistic creation. The Apollo of the Belvedere enjoyed an immense prestige of which no prince could be deprived of. Thus under the reign of Louis XIV, the gardens of the Chateau of Versailles were adorned with a bronze statue created by the Keller brothers, and a marble sculpted by Pierre Mazeline.

Along with monumental statues, the attraction for small bronze objects in the 16th century enabled artists such as Giambologna and Susini in Italy, or Barthélémy Prieur in France, to attract a wealthy private clientele. In the following century, François Girardon, sculptor of Louis XIV and a wise collector, was recognized for his collection of small sculptures, after the

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antique or inspired by modern pieces that he exhibited in his apartments at the Louvre Palace, engraved under the name of Galerie Girardon. Bronze reductions were then synonymous with great wealth, culture and refinement.

At the request of Louis XIV, the Crown collection of Bronzes was one of the most significant one in all of Europe, and included two specimens of the Apollo of the Belvedere. His son, the Dauphin of France, also owned one: it displays many similarities with ours, such as its size and patina as well as its refinement (Fig. 3). Although significantly more faithful to the original than the work of L’Antico, this bronze of prodigious luxury and important dimensions, manifests a concern for infinite details: the stump, hair and draped fabric are chiseled with extreme meticulousness, conferring to the model a preciosity not demonstrated by the antique original. The golden brown bronze patina typically reflects the expertise and savoir-faire of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Our model features full cheeks, a strong chin, curved lips and eye lids. This physiognomy is typical of the Versailles sculpture towards the end of the 17th century, expressed under the chisel of Jean-Baptiste Tuby, Philippe Magnier or Etienne Le Hongre (Fig. 4 to 6), confirming that our bronze does indeed belong to the luxurious and refined atmosphere that took place at the court of Versailles under Louis XIV. FIG. 2 L’Antico, Apollo of the Belvedere, 1497, patinated gilt bronze, approximately 35 cm high, Venice, Ca d’Oro, Galleria Franchetti.

10

FIG. 3

FIG. 4

FIG. 5

FIG. 6

Anonymous, Apollo of the Belvedere, former collection of the Dauphin of France, bronze, H. 55,5 cm (high), Paris, Louvre Museum.

Jean-Baptiste Tuby, The Saone river, 1687, bronze, Versailles, Chateau of Versailles (detail).

Philippe Magnier, Aurora descending from her chariot, 1693, bronze, Paris, Louvre Museum (detail).

Etienne Le Hongre, The Marne river, 1687-1689, bronze, Versailles, Chateau of Versailles (detail).

FRENCH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY

2

Saint Catherine carried

by Angels at Mount Sinai France, circa 1660-1680.

MATERIAL White marble.

DIMENSIONS H. 83,5 cm (32 7/8 in.), L. 96,5 (38 in.).

PROVENANCE Château in the South of France, private collection.

FIG. 1 Nicolas Legendre et Laurent Magnier, Putto of the Bain des Nymphes, 1670, lead, château de Versailles.

FIG. 2 Pierre I Legros, Summer, 1685, marble, Paris, musée du Louvre.

12

Saint Catherine was born at the end of the 3rd century into a family issued from the nobility in Alexandria. Her father, king Costus, provided her with a refined education, and at a young age, she displayed brilliant philosophical dispositions. Her refusal to disavow her Christian faith and marry the Emperor forced her into martyrdom. Upon her death, angels removed her body and carried it to her sepulcher on Mount Sinai.

In our relief, she is wearing a crown reminiscent of her title of princess of Alexandria; a small angel offers her a crown of roses, symbol of holiness, while another holds the palm indicative of martyrdom. Lastly, the palm tree framing the composition to the left evokes Egyptian landscapes while the tomb is depicted to the right.

The refinement of those pleated fabrics undulating around figures denotes a compelling mastery of antique statuary: this fascination for Greco Roman art instigates a drapery style unique to France in the 17th century, particularly enjoyed by Nicolas Legendre and Pierre I Legros (Fig. 1 and 2). Tied up, winding, or swaying in the air, this drapery substituted the opulence of Italian baroque for a precious elegance. The appearance of the angels and putti are also typical of 17th century French art, enhancing the work of sculptor François Girardon (Fig. 3) or painters Nicolas Mignard (Fig. 4) and Jean Daret (Fig. 5).

Our sculptor fashioned his relief like a painting: the theatrical composition in semicircle positions a front-facing character, while angels float with grace in the landscape, nature is rendered with charming decorative details, the tomb is depicted in perspective, and clouds are finely engraved in the sky. The angels supporting the clouds in the Assumption of Nicolas Mignard (Fig. 6) as well as the one opening his arms in the Nativity at the cathedral of Cavaillon (Fig. 7) offer a close stylistic resemblance with our relief. The perspective of the body of Saint Catherine and the sarcophagus, sculpted in diagonal in the marble,

FIG. 3 François Girardon and Nicolas Legendre, King’s room, 1658-1661, stucco, château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

FIG. 4 Nicolas Mignard, Allegorical figure, circa 1660, black penclil, Paris, musée du Louvre, détail.

appear however somewhat clumsy. These slight archaisms suggest a provincial work in the same way as the idealized portraying of the saint with an elongated bust and a rounded abdomen recall the art of Pierre Pavillon in Aix-enProvence (Fig. 8 and 9).

The stylistic proximity of our marble relief with the art of Nicolas Mignard (1606-1668), an academician painter born in Troyes, who spent the majority of his career between Aix and Avignon, and the work of Jean Daret (1613-1668),

FIG. 5 Jean Daret, Lamention of Christ by candlelight, 1636, oil on canvas, Marseille, musée des Beaux-arts, détail.

14

FIG. 6 Nicolas Mignard, Assumption, 1663, oil on canvas, Avignon, chapelle des Pénitents noirs.

FIG. 7 Nicolas Mignard, Nativity, 1642, oil on canvas, Cavaillon, cathédrale Notre-Dameet-Saint-Véran (détail).

a painter born in Brussels who moved to Aix-en-Provence, as well as the production of Pierre Pavillon (1612-1670), sculptor and architect born in Paris who lived in Rome and established himself in Provence, is tied to the fact that the South of France is an important artistic center during the second half of the 17th century. It is a requisite journey for artists who want to travel to Italy, and Provence is also an active and opulently artistic area. Hôtels particuliers, urban retreats for high society in Aix, municipal palaces, châteaux are found throughout the countryside, and numerous churches, chapels and basilicas are countless sources of commissions for artists.

The sculptor of our bas-relief knew as much about the fashionable art at the court of France as he did about Provençal stylistic tropisms. The work may be tied to the corpus of Pierre Pavillon, renowned for his late mannerism softened by his imitation of the antique. A dominant figure in Aix and its surroundings between 1660 and 1670, he received numerous commissions and collaborated with Jean Daret. In its composition as well as its execution, our relief is a brilliant example of the dialogue between the arts that took place in France during the second half of the 17th century.

15

FIG. 8 Pierre Pavillon, Yaël killing Sisera, 1663-1670, stone, Aix-en-Provence, Monument Sec.

FIG. 9 Pierre Pavillon, Mary, sister of Moses, 1663-1670, stone, Aix-en-Provence, Monument Sec.

LITERATURE :

S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française sous le règne de Louis XIV, Paris, Honoré Champion, 1906, p. 399-400.

J. Boyer, “Un architecte-sculpteur parisien en Provence, Pierre Pavillon (16121670)”, in Archives de l’art français. Nouvelle période. Documents inédits sur l’art français du XVIIe siècle, XXIII, 1968, p. 65-96.

F. Reynier, “Le mobilier du XVIIe siècle dans la cathédrale de Cavaillon”, In Situ, 1, 2001, p. 1-26.

A. Maral, “Des jésuites d’Aix-en-Provence au monument Sec. L’étonnante destinée des statues de la chapelle des Messieurs”, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartres, 161, 2003, p. 289-321.

I. Castaldo, Le quartier Mazarin : habiter noblement à Aix-en-Provence XVIIeXVIIIes siècle, Aix-en-Provence, Presses universitaires de Provence, 2011, p.

81-93.

M. Théron, “La population des peintres et sculpteurs en Provence au XVIIe siècle : Aix, Marseille et Toulon”, in V. Gérard-Powell (éd.), Artistes, musées et collections, Paris, PUPS, 2015, p. 77-101.

B. Lamblin, “Les sculpteurs non académiciens à Versailles sous le règne de Louis XIV (1664-1715)”, Bulletin du centre de recherches du château de Versailles, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4000/crcv.16487

17

SCHOOL OF VERSAILLES, 17TH CENTURY

3

Louis XIV And Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche costumed as Knight Ruggiero and Angelica Versailles, 1664.

MATERIAL White marble.

DIMENSIONS LOUIS XIV: H. 52 cm. (20 ½ in.), L. 39 cm. (15 ¼ in.), D. 20 cm. (8 in.).

MARIE-THÉRÈSE: H. 54,5 cm. (21 ½ in.), L. 37 cm. (14 ½ in.), D. 20 cm. (8 in.).

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Wallerant Vaillant, Portrait of Louis XIV, 1660, pastel, Versailles, musée national du château.

FIG. 2 Attributed to Charles and Henri Beaubrun, Marie-Thérèse queen of France, circa 1662, graphite, traces of white chalk highlights, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale.

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Our busts represent a seemingly recognizable couple, dressed in opulently ornate costumes. Those precious marble busts can be identified as young Louis XIV and his wife queen Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche (Fig. 1 and 2), based on other portraits, whether painted or sketched, circa 1664.

The iconography of our bust marbles is quite singular. Unlike the solemn and stately representations that usually corroborate the royal iconography of Louis XIV, our marble busts depict the king and queen lavishly costumed : Louis XIV is wearing an oriental headdress and a large necklace with a figurative radiating sun, while Marie-Thérèse bears a long pleaded dress enhanced with chains. The still relatively narrow shoulders, distinctive of the Louis XIII elegance, indicate that those busts were probably destined to enhance an alcove as part of an architectural décor. This transition between the Louis XIII style and the classicism of Versailles that impacted the reign of Louis XIV, as well as the still appreciated fantasy emanating from the representation of the image of the king, allow us to date those busts to the early 1660’s.

The fascination of Louis XIV for theater, ballet and costumes is largely documented. The king zealously practices dance, and even performs in public for the first time at the early age of thirteen. In 1653, at fifteen years old, he plays the part of the regal Rising Sun at the Ballet Royal de la Nuit by JeanBaptiste Lully (Fig. 3). Public enactment at the théâtre du Petit-Bourbon is a significant event for the court. In that way, Louis XIV disengages from the Regency and announces himself as a public persona, while setting up the stage for his absolute power over the world in an allegorical manner through his incarnation as a sun.

Until 1670, the king regularly performs, whether dressed as an Egyptian

FIG. 3 Louis XIV as Rising Sun, 1653, ink pen and watercolor, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

in the Mariage forcé (Forced Marriage) by Molière on January 29, 1664, or as Renaud in the ballet Les Amours déguisés of Lully, in which queen MarieThérèse plays the part of Proserpina. The king participates in a total of twenty seven ballets, in addition to costumed extravaganzas and masked balls at the court.

Between May 7 and May 12, 1664, the entire court meets at Versailles to attend Les Plaisirs de l’île Enchantée. The theme derives from an episode of Orlando Furioso, written by Ariosto, in which the knight Ruggiero, held captive in a tempting palace by sorceress Alcina, successfully escapes to rescue Angelica, an Oriental queen detained by a monster. During the six days of sumptuous celebrations that followed, ensued uninterrupted exotic animals processions, costume parades, chivalry tournaments, games, fireworks, an exotic menagerie, recitals by Jean-Baptiste Lully and performances organized

by Molière.

Beyond entertaining the court, the incentive behind these festivities is to build the myth of the king’s persona. On the first day the king, costumed as knight Ruggiero, leads the carrousel, while members of the high nobility march behind him (Fig. 4). During those celebrations, over six hundred members of the court are gathered, while the king physically and symbolically organizes the court around him, demonstrating his absolute power over his subjects.

The means deployed for these week long fêtes are significant. In order to organize these magnificent festivities, the department of the Menus Plaisirs 21

du Roi, managing and producing the court revelries, operates in coordination with the Bâtiments du Roi to administer the work as well as its patronage. This organization entirely revolving around the glorification of the royal persona, structures for the first time the economy and the production of entertainment.

Our bust, intended to complete (or perhaps commemorate) the magnificent décor fashioned for les Plaisirs de l’île Enchantée (the Pleasures of Enchanted Island), were created by a sculptor and designer employed by the Menus Plaisirs du Roi. The identification of the artist is difficult in the absence of archives, we know however that he probably was holding a prominent position with the Menus Plaisirs in order for him to be given the significant privilege to represent the royal couple.

LITERATURE

B. Pons, De Paris à Versailles 1699-1736 : les sculpteurs ornemanistes parisiens et l’art décoratif des Bâtiments du roi, Strasbourg, 1985.

K. Wine, “Honored Guests: Wife and Mistress in ‘Les plaisirs de l’île enchantée’”, Dalhousie French Studies, 56, 2001, p. 78-90.

G. Asaro, “Le roi danse : Louis XIV et la mise en scène du pouvoir absolu”, Histoire par l’image [en ligne], consulted on April 27, 2021. URL : http:// histoire-image.org/fr/etudes/roi-danse-louis-xiv-mise-scene-pouvoir-absolu J. de la Gorcet and P. Jugie, Dans l’atelier des Menus Plaisirs du roi.

Spectacles, fêtes et cérémonies aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, Artlys, 2010.

A. Maral, “L’ ‘Estat présant des figures’ (1686), première description des sculptures des jardins de Versailles après l’installation de la cour : un document inédit”, Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des chartres, 170, 2012, p. 59-102.

S. Munoz, “Le portrait royal sculpté en médaillon en France aux xvie et xviie siècles : de François Ier à Louis XIV”, Les Cahiers de Framespa, 11, 2012.

M. Roussillon, “La visibilité du pouvoir dans Les Plaisirs de l’île enchantée (1664) : spectacle, textes et images”, Papers on French Seventeenth Century Literature, 41, 2014, p. 103-117.

S. Chaouche, “Menus Plaisirs et grands spectacles au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle”, 2016, [en ligne], consulted on April 27, 2021. URL : https://www. thefrenchmag.com/attachment/641137/ P.-H. Pénet, “Le vase sculpté dans les jardins de Versailles sous Louis XIV”, Versalia, 19, 2016, p. 201-214.

B. Lamblin, “Les sculpteurs non académiciens à Versailles sous le règne de Louis XIV (1664-1715)”, Bulletin du centre de recherches du château de Versailles, 2019.

FIG. 4 Israël Silvestre, Défilé de la première journée des Plaisirs de l’île enchantée, (Procession of the first day of the Pleasures of Enchanted Island), 1664, engraving, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France.

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ROBERT LE LORRAIN (1666-1743)

4

Mars and Venus Paris, circa 1720.

MATERIAL Patinated bronze, black marble (pedestals).

DIMENSION H. 38 cm. (15 in.), total height : 50 cm (19 ¾ in.), L. 26,5 cm (10 3/8 in.).

PROVENANCE Paris, Charles Stein collection sale, May 10, 1886; certainly acquired around 1895-1898 by the count Boniface de Castellane; Paris, Louis Guiraud collection sale, Paris, December 10, 1971, lot 116; Paris, Carlos de Beistegui e Yturbe collection.

EXHIBITION Louis XIV, Faste et Décors, Paris, Musée des arts décoratifs, May-october. 1960, n° 751 bis.

FIG. 1 Robert Le Lorrain, Busts of a young men and a young girl, circa 1720, patinated bronze, Vienna, Princes of Liechtenstein collection.

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Around 1720, after working on the site of the park of the Palace of Versailles for Louis XIV, Robert Le Lorrain executes, for private sponsors, two bronze busts traditionally called Mars and Venus. Their extraordinary beauty and carving are an immediate success, which leads them to create others. Presented alone (Fig. 2) or in pairs (Fig. 1 and 3), all are based on the same male or female model, but slight iconographic differences make each bust a unique work.

Thus, we find these busts in the largest collections and museums. The collections of the Princes of Liechtenstein present a very beautiful pair representing Thetis and Apollo (Fig. 1 and 2). Coming from the collection of the Duke of Talleyrand at the Château de Valençay, they were acquired by Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein in 1986. Just like our busts, those of Thétis and Apollo present this same golden and shimmering patina, the same delicate work of the drapes and hair.

Very sensitive to the rendering of expression, Le Lorrain created in the tradition of Charles Lebrun “character heads” in terracotta, marble or bronze that can be found mentioned in auction catalogs of the 18th century. It is to this genre that we can relate our two busts.

The pair we present belongs to this group of works made by Le Lorrain at the height of his career. Known for his strong character, he could decide sometimes to accept official orders, sometimes to create only for rich individuals, but always refused, contrary to the practice of time, to solicit the slightest engagement.

Their style is characteristic of French classical art that developed during the reign of Louis XIV. The girl shows a search for grace and natural according

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FIG. 2 Robert Le Lorrain, Bust of a young girl, circa 1720, patinated bronze, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

to the aesthetic canons of time: a bulging forehead, a pointed nose, almondshaped eyes, a fashionable hairstyle at the court of France and a delicate drape reminiscent of prestige of antiquity. The slightly offset head gives life and natural to the bust.

Identified as Mars, god of war for the Romans, the young man is dressed in a finely worked plastron, on which cascades his curly hair. This representation, free and alive, is an ode to the delicate beauty of youth.

Our pair, such as the Bust of a Young Girl at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (Fig. 2) and the pair presented at the Frick Collection (Fig. 3), share an extraordinary quality of chiselling. The same is true of the slightly different pair in Prince Liechtenstein’s collections (Fig. 1). However, our couple also has a unique golden patina, a deep golden brown and shimmering, intact since the eighteenth century. This exceptional achievement has brought our pair, like the busts mentioned above, to be acquired by the most prestigious collections: that, so famous, Charles Stein in the nineteenth century, that of Count Boniface de Castellane for its famous Rose Palace in Paris where were held balls that have become legendary, and that, finally, of Carlos de Beistegui e Yturbe, insatiable socialite and great collector. Often referred to as the most flamboyant character of mid-20th-century European life or as “The Count of Monte Cristo”, de Beistegui e Yturbe held a ball in 1951 at his Palazzo Labia in Venice, still described as “the party of the century”.

FIG. 3 Robert Le Lorrain, Busts of a young men and a young girl, circa 1720, patinated bronze, New York, The Frick Collection.

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FIG. 5 Robert le Lorrain, Jesus leads from the olive tree garden to the High Priest and The Religion and the Charity, circa 1707, carved reliefs for the décor for the Royal Chapel of the Palace of Versailles.

Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743)

FIG. 4 Robert le Lorrain, Bacchus, 1710, marble, Apollon basin in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles.

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Robert Le Lorrain was born in Paris in 1666. His father, linked to the Superintendent of Finance Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), had avoided, a few years earlier, to be affected by the royal disgrace that touched his protector in 1661.

At the age of eighteen, Robert Le Lorrain entered the workshop directed by the sculptor François Girardon (1628-1715) at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

A brilliant apprentice, he won the Prix de Rome in 1688 which allowed him to travel to Rome. There, contrary to custom, he sends no marble work in Paris and prefers to model works in wax that he then melts to sell to private collectors.

Back in France, he refuses to enter the game of courtiers to obtain official orders and prefers to work for financiers and for the high aristocracy. He cannot, however, refuse to work for King Louis XIV. He creates sets for the fountains, basins and the Royal Chapel of the Palace of Versailles and the Grand Trianon which are definitely establishing his fame.

He is particularly employed in Strasbourg by the powerful family of Rohan in the decor of the family palace, nowadays become the Museum of Fine Arts in Strasbourg. For the Parisian hotel Rohan, he sculpts the famous Horses of the Sun above the entrance of the stables. For the Hôtel de Soubise, which now belongs - like his neighbor the Hôtel de Rohan - to the National Archives, he creates four standing statues representing the Four Seasons.

Despite his difficult character, Robert Le Lorrain led, from his piece of reception at the Academy (a marble Galatea conserved at the National Gallery in Washington), a prestigious official career of academician. In 1717, he was appointed professor and then, in 1734, rector of the Academy. In his studio, he had for pupil two of the most brilliant sculptors of the eighteenth century: Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785) and Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1704-1778).

FIG. 6 Robert Le Lorrain, Horses of the Sun, 1737, Hotel de Rohan, Paris.

LITERATURE

Hébert, Dictionnaire pittoresque et historique, ou description… de Paris, Paris, 1766, vol. 1, p. 69.

J. Pope-Hennessy et T.W.I. Hodgkinson, Sculpture in the Frick Collection, New York, Princeton University, 1970, p. 142-144.

F. Souchal (éd.), French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th c. The Reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, Oxford Univerity Press, 1981, vol. 2.

M. Beaulieu, Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743), Neuilly, Arthéna, 1982.

G. Bresc-Bautier et G. Scherf (éd.), Bronzes français, de la Renaissance au Siècle des Lumières, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2008, p. 431.

A. Kugel, Les bronzes du Prince de Liechtenstein. Chefs-d’œuvre de la Renaissance et du Baroque, Paris, 2008, p. 112, n° 37 et 38.

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GIUSEPPE MARIA MAZZA (1653-1741)

5

Allegory of the city of Bologna Bologna, circa 1700.

MATERIAL Terracotta.

DIMENSIONS H. 48 cm (18 7/8 in. high), L. 57 cm (22 ½ in. wide), Pr. 27 cm (10 5/8 in. deep) PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Giuseppe Mazza, The Virgin of Saint Luke and the Saint Protectors of Bologna, circa 1710, terracotta, Bologna, Art and History Collections of the Foundation Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna.

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Emblematic of the art of Giuseppe Mazza, this terracotta sculpture represents an allegory of the city of Bologna infused with 16th century iconography.

The city, symbolized by Minerva the wise warrior, is escorted by a lion and a flag, symbols of strength and justice. They refer to the independence of the city, underlining its equity towards mankind after abolishing slavery within its walls in the 14th century. Mazza also depicts this allegorical feature at the bottom of a low-relief celebrating Saint Luke and the city of Bologna. (Fig. 1).

A perfect synthesis between late rococo and early classicism, our allegory combines all the elements of Mazza’s style: a nonchalant yet elegant posture, a fluid modeling and perfect proportions. Those characteristics can be admired in the two small terracotta statues now conserved in the Museo Civico of Bologna (Fig. 2 and 3). Both display an obvious correlation with the Allegory of Bologna we are presenting here: same modeling of the face, arms and legs, same close-fitted bust armor, same body ideal. Those two small terracotta statues are part of a series of four allegoric statues commissioned to our sculptor by the city of Bologna. By comparison, these beautiful proportions and slight non finite details confer to our Allegory of Bologna a somewhat monumental appearance. It may have been a preliminary study, or project for a statue to embellish the city.

Furthermore, the face features of our Allegoria of Bologna are similar to those of the marble Diana created by Mazza towards the end of the 17th century (Fig. 4). The accentuated rounded cheeks and chin, pointy nose, fine lips and large elongated eyes are all very typical elements of his work replicated to the point of caricature by his best student and friend, Angelo Pio (1690-1770).

This Diana allows us to date our Allegory towards 1700.

Giuseppe Mazza (1653-1741)

FIG. 2

A prodigious representative of the art of rococo, Giuseppe Mazza is the leader of the Bologna School. His work filled with grace and lightness does not however overlook drama depicted with restraint, contrasting against the earlier exaggeration of Rococo.

Born in Bologna towards the middle of the 17th century, Mazza naturally studies the art of sculpture and stucco with his father Camillo, a former student of Algardi and an important figure of the Bolognese artistic community. Just like any young Bolognese artist in the second half of the 17th century, he is also greatly influenced by painter Guido Reni. In 1675, Mazza travels to Venice to perfect his apprenticeship, thus acquiring the mastery of flowing elegant modeling.

Back in Bologna, he receives his first commissions, first from private collectors and later from the Church. He adorns chapels, creates funerary monuments, altarpieces for the churches and basilicas of Bologna and its surroundings. A stucco artist, designer, and statuary, Mazza also specializes in

Giuseppe Mazza, Allegoria, circa 1700, terracotta, Bologna, Museo Civico, Davia Bargellini collection.

FIG. 3 Giuseppe Mazza, Temperance, circa 1700, terracotta, Bologna, Museo Civico, Davia Bargellini collection.

FIG. 4 Giuseppe Mazza, Diana, circa 1693, marble, Chicago, The Art Institute.

34

private earthenware devotion art in low-reliefs or in the round, as attested by the Saint Jerome in the LACMA collections in Los Angeles.

From then on, his talent is unanimously acclaimed. An even more significant recognition emanates from the Prince of Liechtenstein in 1692 who called upon him to work on the décor of the gardens of his Viennese palace. Already engaged in other work, Mazza is unable to travel to Vienna but ensures that his work is delivered to the prince. In 1704, Mazza returns to Venice and in 1722, travels to Rome to work with sculptor Camillo Rusconi and cardinal Gautieri.

A prominent figure among artists in Bologna, Mazza participates in 1710 in the foundation of the Accademia Clementina, of which he was named director three times in 1710, 1722 and 1724. Until his death in 1741, he trained an entire generation of sculptors in his workshop, including Angelo Pio, whose early work tends to merge with the work of his master.

LITERATURE

E. Riccomini (ed.), Mostra della scultura bolognese del Settecento, cat. expo.

(Bologna, Museo civico, Dec. 12, 1965 - Jan. 12, 1966), Bologna, Tamari, 1965, p. 45-69.

E. Riccomini, Ordine e vaghezza: scultura in Emilia nell’età barocca, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1972, p. 90-115.

C. Bernardini (ed.), Giuseppe Maria Mazza, Giacomo De Maria: terrecotte bolognesi, tre capolavori dal Barocco al Neoclassico, Ferrare, SATE, 2000.

35

ANTOINE-MARIE MELOTTE (1722-1795)

6

The Battle of the Amazons after Rubens Victory of Cesar over Pompey (The Battle of Pharsalus ?)

Liège, 1753.

MATERIAL Carved wood panels (varnished pear tree ?).

INSCRIPTIONS for one (Battle of the Amazons) “A LIEGE 1753”; For the other (Victory of Cesar over Pompey): “A M MELOTTE”.

DIMENSION H. 76 cm (29 7/8 in.), L. 160 cm (63 in.) each.

PROVENANCE Acquired by General George Browne in 1753; Nathaniel Clements (1702-1777); his son Robert Clements, 1st count of Leitrim; in family inventories since 1812; was in Killadoon House, home of the counts of Leitrim, in 1829; by inheritance Killadoon House, Ireland.

Born in Liège during the second decade of the 18th century, Antoine-Marie Mélotte specialized early on in wood sculpture. His work includes delicate and refined religious statues adorning city churches, as well as rare and sumptuous reliefs, as precious and sought-after as paintings. Indeed in 1742, Simon Cognoulle (1687-1744), the master of Mélotte, produced as part of a series of six reliefs, the cycle of the History of Alexander painted by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) for Louis XIV a century earlier1.

They held such prestige that Louis XV2 acquired them. Wishing to attain the same stature as his master, young Mélotte also created a series of six reliefs after the History of Alexander by Le Brun. Completed in 17613 and acquired in 1768 by empress Catherine The Great of Russia for her Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg, they are today conserved in the Hermitage museum4 (Fig. 1). In 1772, the Prince-Archbishop of Liège, François-Charles de Velbrück (17111. Painted between 1660 and 1673, these exceptionally large paintings are now conserved at the Louvre Museum (inv.

2894 à 2898). They were engraved among others by Gérard Audran (1640-1703).

2. Cf. Colman, 2005-2009, p. 194 and 198. Sold during the French Revolution, these reliefs became highly notorious on the Parisian art scene in the next century. They were sold at auction on February 14, 1885 at the Hôtel Drouot by auctioneer Boulland, Haro et Fils at the high price of 17 500 gold-francs.

3. Jozic, 1974, p. 325.

4. Ibidem.

36

38

FIG. 1 Antoine-Marie Mélotte after Charles Le Brun, Passage of the Granicus, 1761, Saint Petersburg, Hermitage Museum.

1784), commissioned from Mélotte a second series of reliefs after the History of Alexander for his countryside residence in Seraing; these reliefs in nonvarnished pear tree are now exhibited in the archeological museum of the city of Liège5.

With the cycle of Le Brun, Mélotte demonstrated an unparalleled technical talent opening to him the prestigious ranks of historical painting.

He already experienced great success eight years earlier in 1753, when, registered in his city as a young artist, he chose the renowned Battle of the Amazons by Rubens (1577-1640) as a model, of which magnificent etchings circulated throughout Europe (Fig. 2). This relief is the one we are representing here. Forming a matching pair with the Victory of Cesar over Pompey, it is the first recorded work of Mélotte.

In 1757, Mélotte’s relief was described in the Journal encyclopédique ou universel by a marveled visitor6 as follows: “We saw in 1753 coming out of the workshop of this young artist two low-reliefs (…); one representing the battle of the Amazons, and the other the Victory of Cesar over Pompey. They depict over six hundred figures of admirable research and study”. The Victory of Cesar over Pompey does not emanate from a notorious painting; quite to the contrary, Mélotte chose his own composition as a rightful painter, even if, once again, he was inspired by Rubens who created battle and hunting scenes such as The Death of Decius Mus and Tiger Hunting (Fig. 3). Indeed, our relief also bares reminiscences of the art of Versailles through Charles Le Brun: the lower point of outlook, the elongated scene, the ornate magnificence of nature framing the composition, the various groups creating a continuous narrative, 5. The collections of François-Charles de Velbrück were dispersed after his death in 1784. The reliefs were then acquired by the d’Ansembourg family before joining during the second half of the 20th century the collections of the archeological museum of the city of Liège Grand Curtius. Cf. Yang-Geuzaine, 2012, p. 42.

6. Cf. Journal encyclopédique ou universel, 1757, p. 147 and 148.

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FIG. 2 Peter Paul Rubens (after), The battle of the Amazons, post 1618, chiseled etching, London, British Museum.

the atmospheric landscape opening in the background and finally a stunning science behind every detail.

Those two spectacular and refined reliefs were acquired according to Le Journal encyclopédique ou universel, by a “general Brown”7. It may be General George Browne (1698-1792) from Ireland born in Limerick, who enjoyed a brilliant and extraordinary career in the army on the continent The Journal encyclopédique ou universel also reports that the general “was so enchanted [by the low-reliefs], that he thought he could not have brought anything more rare to England to give as a present”. He then offered them to Nathaniel Clements (1705-1777), a talented Irish financier, renowned politician and great collector, father of Robert (1732-1804), first count of Leitrim. They were placed at the beginning of the 19th century in the family domain of Killadoon House where they have remained until now.

Antoine-Marie Mélotte (1722-1795) Born in Liège in 1722, Antoine-Marie Mélotte soon started his apprenticeship with Jean Simon Cognoulle (1687-1744), canon and wood sculptor. In 1739, at the age of sixteen, Mélotte is mentioned in the town records as “carpenter” and later in 1746 at the age of twenty four, as “merchant sculptor” (marchand sculpteur). Involved in the life of his city, he also holds several important civil functions: first as Captain of the Guard (Capitaine de la Garde) in 1750, before being nominated ten years later Commissioner to the City (Commissaire de la Cité).

Mélotte develops a real emulation with his master: he often sculpts reliefs 7. Cf. Journal encyclopédique ou universel, 1757, p. 148.

40

representing the same themes a few years later to prove his talent. As such, his six panels representing the History of Alexander after Charles Le Brun are pure master pieces. Regarded as treasures, they were acquired in 1768 by Catherine the Great of Russia8, while Charles Alexandre de Lorraine, Prince-Bishop (Prince-Evêque) of the city of Liège, commissioned a second series in nonvarnished pear tree of slightly smaller dimensions in 1772.

Our sculptor also engages into religious subjects. He creates reliefs of private devotion (Deploration at the foot of the Cross, former Jean Iowa collection, Liège), and altar pieces depicting the life of Saint Barb (Collégiale SaintGeorges and Sainte-Ode d’Amay) and sculpts in high relief for the churches of his city (Vierge de douleurs, Collégiale Saint-Barthélemy, Liège).

Starting in 1780 Mélotte regularly exhibits at the Society of Emulation of Liège to encourage the art, literature and sciences (Société d’Emulation de Liège pour encourager les arts, les lettres et les sciences), a society founded a year earlier by the Prince-Evêque of Liège based on an ideal inspired by the Lumières.

Mélotte sculpted until his death in Liège at the age of seventy three.

LITERATURE

FIG. 3 Peter Paul Rubens, Tiger hunting, 1617-1618, oil on canvas, Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts.

Journal encyclopédique ou universel, 1757, t. 2, p. 147-149.

Revue universelle des arts, 23, 1866, p. 136-137.

Exposition de l’art ancien au Pays de Liège, Liège, 1881, p. 76, n° 249.

Catalogue des tableaux ancien et remarquables bas-reliefs en bois sculpté représentant les batailles d’Alexandre œuvre exceptionnelle de Simon Cognoulle de Liège, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 14 février 1885.

“Simon Cognoulle, sculpteur liégeois”, Bulletin des commissions royales d’art et d’archéologie, XXIV, 1885, p. 100.

J. Helbig, La sculpture et les arts plastiques au pays de Liège et sur les bords de la Meuse, Bruges, Desclée de Brouwers, 1890.

J. Helbig, “Mélotte, Antoine Marie”, Nouvelle bibliographie nationale de l’Académie Royale de Belgique, XIV, 1897, p. 324-326.

U. Thieme et F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon…, Leipzig, Seemann, 1930, vol. 24, p. 369-370.

J. Philippe, Inventaire des collections des musées Curtius et d’Ansembourg.

Sculpteurs et ornemanistes de l’ancien Pays de Liège, Liège, Vaillant-Carmanne, 1958.

J. Philippe, “Une remarquable série de bas-reliefs liégeois d’après Le Brun”, Chronique archéologique du Pays de Liège, LVIII, 1968, p. 1-10.

B. Lhoist-Coman, “Antoine-Marie Mélotte (1722-1795)”, Bulletin de la Société royale Le Vieux-Liège, 165, 1969, p. 369-389.

P. Colman et B. Lhoist-Colman, “Les reliefs d’Antoine-Marie Mélotte d’après les Batailles d’Alexandre de Charles Le Brun”, Bulletin de la Société royale Le VieuxLiège, 171, 1970, p. 501-507.

D. Jozic, “Quelques précisions sur la présence au Musée de l’Ermitage de six bas-reliefs du sculpteur liégeois Antoine-Marie Mélotte”, Bulletin de la Société royale Le Vieux-Liège, 184, 1974, p. 325-329.

P. Philippot (éd.), L’Architecture religieuse et la Sculpture Baroque dans les PaysBas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège, 1600-1700, Sprimont, Mardaga, 2003, p. 1022.

P. Colman and B. Lhoist-Colman, “Simon Cognoulle (1687-1744), virtuose liégeois du relief taillé dans le bois”, Bulletin archéologique liégeois, CXIV, 20052009, p. 187-211.

S. Yang-Geuzaine, “Antoine-Marie Mélotte, Batailles d’Alexandres d’après Charles Le Brun”, Bulletin des musées de la ville de Liège, 4, 2012, p. 42.

8. Cf. Jozic, 1974, p. 325-326.

41

THOMAS-GERMAIN DUVIVIER (1735-1814)

7

Still life with globe, palette and antique sculpture Paris, 18th century.

MATERIAL Oil on canvas.

DIMENSIONS FRAMED H. 76,5 cm (30 in.), L. 65,5 cm (25 ½ in.).

DIMENSIONS UNFRAMED H. 63,5 cm (25 in.), L. 52,4 cm (20 ½ in.).

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG.1 Thomas-Germain Duvivier, Workshop of the Sculptor, oil on canvas, 1772, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest.

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Born into a dynasty of painters and sculptors, Thomas-Germain Duvivier lives with his family in the Louvre Galleries. He was rapidly placed in his neighbor’s workshop, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779), by his father, Jean Duvivier, engraver of medals for the King and member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He starts his career by exhibiting paintings at the Porte Dauphine Salon on the day of the Fête-Dieu (Corpus Christi) in 1761. Duvivier also participates in the Salon in 1793 with his piece: Les attributs de la peinture et de la Sculpture (The attributes of painting and sculpture). Although recognized as an engraver and painter as recorded in his marriage certificate in 1766, he is mainly known today as a still life painter.

Our painting evokes the era when critics who came to discover new talents at the Salons wrote: “We have seen two paintings by Monsieur Duvivier. One easily recognizes that he thoroughly analyzes the work of M. Chardin; with the counsel of a talented man and proper guidance to apply it, one can hope for his prompt success” (L’Avant-Coureur, 1761).

Duvivier almost systematically incorporates sculptures in his still lives (Fig. 1): bronze, plaster, marble representing a woman’s head, a Leda, a Hercules, or low-relief… The plaster bust evokes the artists’ studies, painters or sculptors, emulating old masters, the foundation of internship and creation as advocated by Le Brun. More than the variety or multiplicity of the depicted objects all related to humanist culture, it is the captivating way in which he falsely unsettles and re-arranges those that emanates poetry in the compositions of Thomas Germain Duvivier. Having perfectly integrated the teachings of this master Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Duvivier asserts himself, in the footsteps of Henry-Horace Roland De la Porte or Anne

Vallayer-Coster (Fig.2), as one of the most distinguished representative of still life in France in the 18th century.

LITERATURE

M. and F. Faré, La vie Silencieuse en France au XVIIIe siècle, (Silent Life in France in the 18th century), Office du Livre, Fribourg, 1976, p. 175-181.

FIG.2 Anne Vallayer-Coster, Attributes of painting, sculpture and architecture, oil on canvas, 1769, Salon of 1771, Paris, Louvre Museum.

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JOHANN VALENTIN SONNENSCHEIN (1749-1828)

8

The Crowning of a Poet Paris, circa 1680-1690.

MATERIAL Terracotta.

INSCRIBED LYCAS / ET / MILON. DIMENSIONS H. 55 cm (21 5/8 in.), L. 40 cm (15 ¾ in.), D. 26 cm (10 ¼ in.).

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Anton Graff, Salomon Gessner, 1765-1766, oil on canvas, Zurich, Nationalmuseum.

This delightful terracotta group depicts the crowning of a poet: a nymph lays a crown of roses on the head of the young man as he inscribes the title of one of his work: “Lycas et Milon” directly on a tree trunk.

Written by the Swiss poet Salomon Gessner, this pastoral poem narrates the encounter of Milon and Lycas “with undulating blond hair resembling ears of wheat before the harvest”. While leading their flocks to the pastures, the two shepherds decide to compete with their singing and flute playing. Ménalque will be their judge. The two young men converse while making the apology of their art. After listening to them, Ménalque refuses to declare a winner and invites them to continue their verbal exchange.

A poet and a painter, Salomon Gessner was born in Zurich in 1730 (Fig. 1).

He evolves in the liberal Zurich circles during the Age of Enlightenment.

Painter Johan Caspar Füssli (1706-1782), father of Henry Füssli, depicts him among his knowledgeable friends, doctors and writers. He advocates a moral and nostalgic literature, a Golden Age populated with shepherds and muses brought together in 1756 in his Idylls. Just like La Nouvelle Héloïse written

by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1761), his poems and writings encounter great popularity. They are translated in English and French and published next to the Contes Moraux by Diderot1. His painting echoes his literary work: he paints and draws idyllic landscapes between neoclassicism and romanticism, immediately fascinating collectors.

This artistic aura takes form in our terracotta monument, as an homage to the poet and his Arcadia. A close friend of Gessner, sculptor JohannValentin Sonnenschein is inspired by his tales2 to model a beautiful terracotta group 1. Cf. note 1.

2. Salomon Gessner, «Amyntas. Les deux pommes de Chloé» in Contes Moraux et nouvelles Idylles, Zurich, 1773.

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FIG. 2

FIG. 3

FIG. 4

J. V. Sonnenschein, Amyntas and Chloe, 1780, terracotta, Zurich, Swiss National Museum.

J. V. Sonnenschein, Portrait of Salomon Gessner, 1775-1780, marble, Zurich, Swiss National Museum.

J. V. Sonnenschein, The poet, 1780, terracotta, Bern, Kunstmuseum.

(Fig. 2), as well as his portrait within a marble medallion (Fig. 3) and even conceive the decor of the room in which the poet retires to compose3.

In 1780, Sonnenschein creates a relief called The poet (Fig. 4) whose main character bears a resemblance with Gessner. It might already be an homage to his friend4. Until then, Sonnenschein specialized in reliefs and groups inspired by the antique: he also produces portraits and models small characters illustrating daily life5. In this Crowning of a poet, he celebrates both the antique world and a friend.

Sonnenschein most certainly created this light and joyous group while his friend Gessner was alive, since his other commemorative monuments habitually reflect a more rigorous neoclassicism. The Pastor Samuel Hopf (Fig. 5), the Monument to Ludwig Rudolf von Jenner (Fig. 6) or the Monument to Abraham Carl Brunner (Fig. 7) are representations devoid of smiles, reflecting inwardness6.

Produced between 1775 and 1780, the Crowning of a poet reveals the

FIG. 8 J. V. Sonnenschein, Portrait of a poet, circa 1780, terracotta, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Cf. Draper and Scherf, 2003, cat. 131 p. 292.

Ibidem.

Cf. Draper and Scherf, 2003, p. 230 and 284.

Ibidem, cat. 126 p. 269, cat. 127 p. 270, and cat. 130 p. 277-278.

FIG. 5

FIG. 6

FIG. 7

J. V. Sonnenschein, Pastor Samuel Hopf, 1787, terracotta, Bern, Kunstmuseum.

J. V. Sonnenschein, Monument to Ludwig Rudolf von Jenner, 1806, terracotta, Basel, Historisches Museum.

J. V. Sonnenschein, Monument to Abraham Carl Brunner, 1808, terracotta, Bern, Kunstmuseum.

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FIG. 9 J. V. Sonnenschein, Bacchante with vase, 1780, terracotta, Munich, Bayerische Nationalmuseum. Former galerie Perrin collection.

astonishing artistic maturity of Sonnenschein. Hair is recreated with stunning and meticulous precision, while the rounded faces with underlined eyes and curved pupils illuminate a bright gaze (Fig. 8). Beyond those characters, no space is left devoid of ornaments.

The slightly stocky bodies are draped in delicate and opulent fabrics, while the decorative details are treated with extraordinary precision. These characteristics of Sonnenschein’s style can also be identically admired in a magnificent Bacchante with vase (Fig. 9), another marveled homage to the Antique. Garlands of flowers, pleats and naturalistic elements are modeled with discernable enjoyment.

In the same manner as Clodion in France, Sonnenschein combines the fading rococo with early neoclassicism. Their art of extreme refinement brings forth an antique world populated with nymphs and poets whose songs nurture the Age of Enlightenment.

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Johann Valentin Sonnenschein (1749-1828)

FIG. 10 August Friedrich Oelenhainz, Portrait of Johann Valentin Sonnenschein, 1793, oil on canvas, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie.

Johann Valentin Sonnenschein was born in Stuttgart in 1749. The son of a tailor, he starts his apprenticeship with Wilhelm Beyer (1725-1796), who practices sculpture, painting, ceramic as well as garden art. This approach greatly influences young Sonnenschein who in turn engages in sculpting, portraits, stuccos, eventually also teaches drawing and produces models for the porcelain manufacture of Ludwigsburg in Zurich.

In 1762 he works with stucco artist Ludovico Bossi for Charles-Eugène, duke of Wurtemberg (1728-1793). Both men adorn the ducal properties with new classical stucco. Starting in 1769, Sonnenschein emancipates himself from Bossi. In 1771, he is nominated official stucco artist to the court. This relentless labor soon affects his health, and in 1774 he joins his writer and theologian friend Johann Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) in Zurich to repose. Lavater introduces him to physiognomy which immediately seduces him.

Zurich was then a city welcoming intellectual circles vivified by the Age of Enlightenment. He meets with writers and scientists, painters and poets and creates their portraits. His talent to transpose an art of the court, perfected during his years working for the duke of Wurtenberg, to this intellectual and upper middle-class sphere, grants him numerous commissions. He also redesigns the music room of the Haus Zum Kiel in Zurich where for the first time, the neoclassical language is fully deployed in an interior setting7. Well established in intellectual and artistic circles in Zurich, Sonnenschein becomes a drawing teacher all the while creating models for the porcelain manufacture of Zurich. Finally between 1779 and 1815, he teaches at the School of Fine Arts in Bern. He died in 1828.

LITERATURE

O. Breitbart, Inaugural-Dissertation um Johann Valentin Sonnenschein, Zurich, Leeman, 1912.

G. Lutz (éd.), Valentin Sonnenschein. Ein schwabischer Hofstukkateur in Zürcher Diensten, 1774-1779, cat. expo. (Zurich, Museum Rietberg), Zurich, 1992.

J. D. Draper and G. Scherf (ed.), Playing with Fire: European Terracotta Models 1740-1840, cat. expo. , 2003, p. 162, 269-270, 292, 319.

G. Lutz, “Johann Valentin Sonnenschein”, in SIKART. Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz, 1998-2017.

7. Cf. R. W. Sänger (ed), Trésors d’orfèvrerie suisse. Les collections du Musée national suisse, cat. expo. (Karslruhe, Badisches Landesmuseum, April 24, 2004-Sept. 2007, Zurich, Musée national suisse), Karlsruhe, Info Verlag, 2004, p.

152.

55

JOSEPH-CHARLES MARIN (1759-1834)

9

Silenus with two Children Paris, 1786.

MATERIAL Terracotta.

Dimensions H. 26 cm (101/4 in.), diam. base 20 cm (7 7/8 in.).

SIGNATURE Signed and dated on the back J.C. MARIN 1786.

PROVENANCE Sold at auction La Fontaine on February 22, 1798, n° 233.

FIG. 1 Joseph-Charles Marin, The triumph of Bacchus, circa 1790, terracotta, 37 x 109 cm, Musée des Beaux-Arts of Canada.

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Referred to as “my friend” by Clodion in his will, Joseph-Charles Marin is one of the virtuoso sculptors of the end of the 18th century. Renowned for his terracotta bacchantes and fauns, he is one of the greatest representatives of this graceful, exquisite and sumptuously decorative art that defines the transition between rococo and neo-classicism. His characters are inspired by mythology, an Antiquity populated with deities sometimes joyful, sometimes horrendous, in the image of the story of Silenus. The satyr took charge of young Dionysus, god of the grape-harvest and illegitimate son of Zeus, and educated him.

Always inebriated, often accompanied by a group of putti and bacchantes, Silenus once turned those who mocked him into donkeys. This burlesque character is one of Marin’s favorite themes.

Our group, depicting Silenus and two children to whom he is offering wine and grape, was modeled early in his career in 1786, when he is just twenty seven years old and still a student at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. This piece coincides with the opening of a crucial decade in Marin’s career during the 1790’s, where he begins to emerge as a sculptor affirming his own identity, instead of just a simple “student of Clodion”. He slowly shifts towards a soft neo-classicism, sculpting characters with more unassuming expressions, with understated hair and drapes, and poised attitudes. Modeled with exuberance, clay radiates incandescent effects emphasizing the various textures in a virtuoso fashion; the softness of skin, the paw’s fur, the hair with small curls. Marin was, with Clodion, the only artist who mastered such iconographic creativity and technique. This work testifies to his prodigious talent in rendering naturalist depiction. With this refined terracotta, our sculptor reveals himself as the prodigious stylist about to affirm himself as one of the most important artists of his era.

Although Marin worked with bronze, marble and plaster, he earned

FIG. 2 Joseph-Charles Marin, The inebriation of Silenus, circa 1790, terracotta, former Marius Paulme collection, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, May 15, 1929, n° 335.

FIG. 3 Joseph-Charles Marin (1759-1834), Bacchante with chalice and three children end of 18th century, terracotta, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

his growing recognition with his terracottas. Clay was originally used in preparatory work, however in the course of the 18th century, it started to be recognized as final material for objects of art. Contrary to other media, terracotta records “the digital imprint of the artist”. Marin expresses the vitality and spontaneity of Silenus and those children, imprinting the sculpture with each move. Those modeling characteristics of Marin coupled with the physical appearance of Silenus (his beard, rounded body, curled lips), are also present in numerous important work such as the impressive low-relief conserved in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Canada (Fig.1).

This soft and dazzling naturalism is also found in a group depicting Silenus inebriated amidst bacchantes, previously in the prominent collection of Marius Paulme (Fig. 2). The elegant gestures, the charisma of the chubby-cheeked children, and even the chalice’s details are noticeable as well in two very exquisite groups conserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig.3 and 4), distinctive of Marin’s initial style.

Italy, and more particularly Rome, is for the artists who frequently visit it, especially Marin, an endless source of inspiration. Fauns, satyrs and bacchantes are present throughout the history of painting and sculpture.

François Duquesnoy (1597-1643), inspired by Poussin and the excavation of exceptional vestiges, created models that are still decorating the walls of workshops of the Écoles des Beaux-Arts, especially its renowned low-relief Enfants à la chèvre, Children with goat, which inspired numerous artists including Clodion, Piat Sauvage or Marin. This mythology also transmitted in the Le Recueil de l’antiquité expliquée written by Montfaucon and published in 1722, encourages French artistic inspiration. The 18th century polished this influence to make it more amiable and adapted it to the style of Madame Pompadour or Madame du Barry. Marin, very influenced by his era, will expand during his entire life a production a small bacchanalian figures (Fig.5), busts, young women, some with abundant unruly hair, other more tidy, yet all with the same mask so relished by the artist. Nicknamed “Corrège de la sculpture” (Il Correggio of sculpture), Marin successfully and easily moved and seduced.

Our sculpture, truly intended for enlightened amateurs, was included in the sale of the “Precious collection of paintings of the three schools, belonging to Citizen La Fontaine, artist and merchant” (“Collection précieuse de tableaux des trois écoles, appartenans au Citoyen La Fontaine, artiste et négociant”, on February 22, 1798. This Citizen La Fontaine is none other than Pierre-Joseph Lafontaine (1758-1835), Belgium painter, member of the Royal Academy of Painting in Paris, and a protégé of Greuze and Denon. Since the Revolution kept him from pursuing an official career, he established himself as painting merchant, and worked for the French museums.

Joseph-Charles Marin (1759-1834) FIG. 4 Joseph-Charles Marin (1759-1834), Bacchante with grapes and three children, end of 18th century, terracotta, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Born in Paris in 1759, Joseph-Charles Marin joined the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the workshop of Clodion. He passionately and skillfully follows the guidance of his friend and master and attempts several times to win the Grand Prix of Rome. These repeated failed attempts do not keep him from pursuing a successful career with art amateurs, who

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commission from him graceful and decorative pieces in the manner of Clodion.

Thanks to the Revolution, Marin is able to finally exhibit at the Salon once its access is liberalized. Starting in 1791, he presents each year about fifteen pieces. Carried by his success, he continues to incessantly model, sculpt and create. In 1794, he participates in the contest for a monument to honor JeanJacque Rousseau. That same year, he inherits from his mother which allowed him to travel to Rome where he remained until 1799.

Following the demise of the Old Regime in 1801 and the torments of the French Revolution, he ultimately wins the Grand Prix of Rome. Back in Italy, this time as resident student at the Academy, his style becomes more effortless, in tune with the new neo-classicism spreading across Europe. In Rome until 1810, he receives numerous public and private commissions, and sculpts monuments honoring the great dignitaries of the First Empire. Back in France he becomes, after the death of Chinard in 1813, professor at the Ecole des Beaux-arts of Lyon until 1817, following which he definitively settles in Paris.

He continues to receive public commissions for monuments, but sculpts less often. Having reached an advanced age, he slowly retires and dies in Paris in 1834.

LITERATURE

Joseph-Charles Marin, cat. expo. Galerie Patrice Bellanger, Paris, 1992.

A. L. Poulet and G. Scherf (ed.), Clodion 1738-1814, cat. expo. (Paris, Louvre Museum, March 17-June 29, 1992), Paris, RMN, 1992.

J. D. Draper and G. Scherf (éd.), L’Esprit créateur de Pigalle à Canova. Terres cuites européennes 1740-1840, cat. expo. (Paris, Louvre Museum, Sept. 19, 2003-Jan. 5, 2004), Paris, RMN, 2003.

FIG. 5 Joseph-Charles Marin, Satyr giving grapes to his child and Satyr playing with his child, circa 1790, pair of terracottas, H. 17,5 cm (without pedestal), Paris, Galerie Patrice Bellanger, Joseph-Charles Marin (17591834), exhibition catalogue, March 1992, pp.38-41, nos 7 and 8, collection of Ambassador and Mrs. Raymond Guest.

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JEAN-JACQUES DE BOISSIEU (1736-1810)

10

Vanities

French School, pair of drawings, circa 1780.

TECHNIQUE Pierre noire, stump with white highlights on laid paper.

DIMENSIONS TO THE EYE (EACH) H. 31 cm (12 1/4 in.), L. 24 cm (9 ½ in.).

DIMENSIONS FRAMED (EACH) H. 55,5 cm (21 7/8 in.), L. 47,2 cm (18 9/16 in.).

SIGNATURE Monogram bottom right “DB”.

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Jean-Jacques De Boissieu, Self-portait of the artist holding the portrait of his wife, private collection.

FIG. 2 Jean-Jacques De Boissieu, Landscape with farm and two figures, Morgan Library New York.

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Jean-Jacques De Boissieu attained incredible success in France as well as abroad, (Fig.1), and is undeniably one of the most talented drawing and etching artists of the 18th century. Humbly nicknamed the French Rembrandt, Jean-Jacques De Boissieu was able to infuse his compositions with such realism that he was equated with the greatest masters.

Born in Lyon in 1736, Jean-Jacques De Boissieu becomes a student of Charles Frontier, and starts drawing after nature in 1759. In 1761, he travels to Paris where he remains for three years, a move that immensely impacted his work. There, he meets Vernet, Watelet, as well as Jean-Baptiste Greuze. With the support of his new friend, Alexandre de la Rochefoucauld, De Boissieu tours Italy and visits Genoa, Naples and Rome, studying the masters, all the while producing art based on nature. He returns to Lyon and starts a workshop that quickly becomes the must-see rendez-vous for personalities and collectors visiting the area.

His work significantly circulates during the artist lifetime, thereby promptly seducing the most knowledgeable collectors, while validating the presence of numerous examples of his work in the most prestigious public collections.

His drawings and etchings among others are visible in the Louvre Museum, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, the Morgan Library or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

While his work mostly involves landscapes from the Lyon area or from Italy (Fig. 2), portraits or genre scenes, our drawings are an exception to this list. Their quality, depth, power and uniqueness undoubtedly qualify them as masterpieces among De Boissieu’s production.

65

GEORGES JACQUOT (1794-1874)

11

Young Faun and Bacchante France, circa 1833.

MATERIAL Marble.

DIMENSIONS H. 113 cm (44 1/3 in.), L. 148 cm (58 1/3 in.), D. 46 cm (18 in.).

SIGNATURE Signed G. JACQUOT on the base.

PROVENANCE Auction sale at the Hotel Drouot, by Auctioneer Me Pillet, Paris, May 20, 1875, lot n°117; Château of Pontchartrain, Jouars-Pontchartrain.

EXHIBITIONS Salon of 1833, n° 3262; Universal Exhibition, Paris, 1855, n° 4436.

FIG. 1 Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Love and Psyche, marble, Louvre Museum, Paris.

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Our important sculpture is none other than the master piece of George Jacquot, presented at the Salon in 1833 (n°3262) and at the Universal Exhibition (World Fair) in 1855 (n°4436). Its size, and the meticulousness and refinement brought to the treatment of the marble reveal that it was destined for the Salon. This elegant white marble group portrays a young faun and a bacchante, easily recognizable by their attributes, decorative details treated with extraordinary precision: crown of vines and grapes in their hair, bunches of grapes resting on a drum, faun wearing an animal skin… The composition seeks flexible lines, and the grace of a natural stance. The anatomy has been researched, and respects the proportions of the live model. The modeling is rounded, portraying physicality with extreme subtlety, notably with the figure viewed from the back. The sensuality it exudes is underlined by references to the antique in the gesture and face features.

This theme, in its composition as well as treatment of the marble, evokes the sensual neoclassical influence of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) that enthused the work of Jacquot. During his stay as student resident in Italy between 1820 and 1826, our sculptor discovers the antiques, Rome and Canova, boundless sources of inspiration. Neoclassicism in sculpture between 1800 and 1830 is exposed to multiple movements, offering various interpretations, sometimes contradicting the antique model. The young faun bent over the languorous bacchante he supports, his hand negligently on her right breast, recalls the composition of Canova’s master piece, Love and Psyche in 1798 (Louvre museum, inv. M.R. 1176) (Fig. 1 and 2). The influence and analogy is also palpable in the delicate and idealized treatment of the bodies.

FIG. 2 Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Love and Psyche, marble, Louvre Museum, Paris.

FIG. 3 Antonio Canova (1757-1822), Love and Psyche standing, marble, Louvre Museum, Paris.

The refinement of the treatment of the hands is also reminiscent of the neocanovian influence evoking another version of Love and Psyche (Fig. 3).

The figures of our faun and bacchante do not display the proud and solemn sentiment of the Antique, they are humanized and participate in the general sensual esthetic of the work, characterized by the modernity introduced by Jacquot.

At the Salon of 1833, Auguste Jal (1795-1873) wrote in Les causeries du Louvre: salon de 1833 about the group: “Besides, Mr. Jaquot is a happier one in the composition you will see over there: A young faun caressing a Bacchante.

– Oh! But this is very nice, isn’t it ? (…) The bacchante is quite voluptuous; the faun is passionate. The position of the head of the young woman, and her head itself, are quite lovely. The body is pleasurable with details; the faun’s body is even better.”

A rewarded sculptor who studied in one of the two largest sculpture workshops in the first quarter of the 19th century, the workshop of FrançoisJoseph Bosio (1768-1845), champion of neo-canovian esthetic, Georges Jacquot was selected to participate in important decors at the Louvre Palace, the Arch of Triumph in Paris, and Stanislas Square in Nancy (Fig. 4) and to conceive the bust of Louis-Philippe (Fig. 5).

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FIG. 4

FIG. 5

FIG. 6

Stanislas Leczynski, king of Poland, 1831, bronze, Stanislas Square, Nancy.

Bust of Louis-Philippe Ist, King of the French, plaster, signed and dated 1834, Condé Museum, Chantilly.

Cursed Cain, hearing the voice of the Eternal, plaster, 1820, Musée de l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

Georges Jacquot (1794-1874) The son of a sculptor originally from Nancy, Jacquot studied in the Parisian workshops of Baron Gros and later François Joseph Bosio before joining the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1813. After winning the second Grand Prize of Rome in 1817, he won the first prize of the contest in 1820 with a sculpture representing Cursed Cain hearing the voice of the Eternal (Fig. 6), which opened to him the doors of the Villa Médici in Rome where he remained until 1826.

He exhibited at the Salon from 1817 until 1859 and participated in the décor of the Louvre Palace (Fig. 7) and the Arch of Triumph of the Etoile in Paris.

He also created a marble of a Young Nymph stepping into the water now in the Louvre Museum (inv. CC 4) (Fig. 8), two others depicting Paris (Fig. 9) and Mercury (Fig. 10) at the château of Versailles (inv. MV 7966 and inv. 7965), and another of a Reclining Odalisque in Bourges (Berry Museum).

FIG. 7 Georges Jacquot, Trophy, 1851, pediment of the Great Gallery of the Louvre Palace.

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FIG. 8 Georges Jacquot, Young nymph stepping into the water, marble, 1824, Louvre Museum.

FIG. 9 Georges Jacquot, The shepherd of Paris, 1827, marble, château of Versailles.

FIG. 10 Georges Jacquot, Mercury, Invention of the caduceus, 1827, marble, château de Versailles.

71

AUGUSTE PREAULT (1809-1879)

12

Silence

Paris, 1842-1849.

MATERIAL Plaster.

DIMENSION Diam. 41 cm (16 1/8 in.).

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Auguste Préault, Monument to Jacob Roblès, 1842, marble, Paris, Père-Lachaise cemetery.

What is this figure of undefined age and uncertain sex? Is it Death, the Parca who cut the thread to life, one of the Mothers who, from the depth of the Hades, watches over the seeds of future creations? (…). Towards which invisible horizon does this empty gaze watch; which dream or thought haunts this somnolent forehead ? (…) One does not know; but this impassible head, sinister and mysterious, has the appearance of Death itself; it horrifies, immobilizes and stupefies.1 These words, written by Théophile Gautier when Auguste Préault unveils the Silence at the Salon in 1849, confirm the impact this work had. The work, immediately promoted as an icon of Romanticism, personalizes artistic modernity in the middle of the 19th century. “The romantic movement has been represented by Victor Hugo in poetry, by Delacroix in painting, and by Berlioz in music; Auguste Préault transported it into sculpture.”2 Draped in a shroud, this face flaunts a melancholic mask. A hand comes out from under the fabric placing a finger on the mouth, commanding respect for the departed and the mystery of the afterlife… This work was commissioned to Préault in 1842 for the grave site of Jacob Roblès at the Père-Lachaise, a renowned Parisian cemetery (Fig. 1); a preparatory drawing is conserved at the musée des beaux-arts in Rouen.

Discarding artistic standards, Préault represents neither the departed, nor an allegory, but instead a reflection of the transition between the world of the living and the empire of the departed. Thus, our artist evades Romanticism and becomes the first Symbolist. Yet the severe features do resemble a portrait: the emaciated face, the aquiline nose, the heavy eye lids and the bitterness of the lips unfailingly evoke Dante’s face, recognizable thanks to his mortuary mask. In Ravenna, his grave site is surmounted with a low-relief featuring Dante in front of his Divine Comedy. He already holds his hand to his mouth: 1. Cf. Théophile Gautier, La Presse, July 27, 1849.

2. Cf. Théophile Gautier, Ibidem.

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FIG. 2 Stefano Ricci, Cenotaph of Dante, 1821-1830, marble, Florence, basilica di Santa Croce.

this naturalist gesture indicates reflection and inspiration, and it also is associated here for the first time with a mortuary effigy. It will be reproduced in 1821 by Stefano Ricci for the cenotaph commissioned by the city of Florence on the occasion of the celebrations of the five hundredth anniversary of the death of the poet (Fig. 2). Poetic and silent, inhabited by romantic introspection, this statue immediately becomes one of the most celebrated representation of the Florentine poet.

The Divine Comedy, poem revered by Romantics was illustrated by Henri Füssli (1741-1825) (Fig. 3). The vision of Préault is already present, underlying. Füssli’s influence on Préault does not stop at the figure of Dante.

Among the most celebrated paintings of Füssli, The three witches and Macbeth consulting with the Armed Head (Les trois sorcières et Macbeth consultant les sorcières)(Fig. 4 and 5) illustrate one of the most notorious scenes of the notorious Macbeth written by Shakespeare, another venerated artist among the Romantics. His index on his mouth, the magicians wearing a hooded gown are the primitive figures of the Silence of Préault Sculpted first in marble, Silence is placed at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris the same year it was commissioned (1842). It took the demise of the July Monarchy, a conservative regime less favorable to Romantics, and the advent of the Second Republic, before Préault is able to exhibit a bronze version at the Salon in 1849, where he had a great success. In response to the enthusiasm of visitors, Préault produces two other bronzes now conserved in museums3, as well as approximately ten plaster versions. Of the eleven pieces recorded in the catalogue raisonné of the artist4, nine are now conserved in museums5. Only two remain in private hands: the one we are presenting here and another not yet localized.

Auguste Préault (1809-1879)

FIG. 3 Thomas Holloway after Henri Füssli, Quatrième tête d’une âme damnée d’après l’Enfer de Dante, engraving, 1791, London, Royal Academy of Arts.

“Préault’s sculpture is passion, radiance, and excitement”6. In those few words, dramaturge and critic Jules Clarétie ardently describes his contemporary. With his bad-temper, Préault is the archetype of the romantic artist. Often infuriated, lapsing into melancholia or destroying his own work, he is also affable and a socialite, seeking the company of his peers, and a frequent visitor of bohemian 7 salons. He thereby cultivates his own legend of a damned artist misunderstood by his contemporaries.

Born in Paris in 1809 into a modest family, Auguste Préault devotes himself early on to an artistic career. He becomes a student of the Académie de Charles Suisse, which gave the opportunity to students of such families to pursue artistic studies. He then joined the workshop led by David d’Angers at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Only fifteen years of age and a precocious student, Préault discovers Romanticism and dedicates himself to sculpture.

3. Bucarest, muzeul national de Arta al Romaniei, inv. 667 ; Auxerre, musée Leblanc-Duvernoy, inv. 872-8. Cf. Bellenger et Blühm, 1997, cat. 80, p. 155.

4. Cf. Bellenger et Blühm, 1997, cat. 80, p. 155.

5. Paris, musée du Louvre, inv. RF 3692 ; Paris, musée Carnavalet ; inv. S 3354 ; Bayonne, musée Bonnat, inv. 815 ; Saint Tropez, Conservatoire du littoral, Château de la Moutte ; Baltimore Museum of Art, inv. 2004.97 ; Dallas Museum of Art, inv. 2014.10 ; Detroit Institute of Art, inv. 2007.200 ; Manchester (NH), Currier Museum of Art, inv.

2017.20 ; et Chicago, Art Institute, inv. 200.46.

6. Cf. Clarétie, 1874, p. 37.

7. Cf. Mower, 1981, p. 288.

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FIG. 4 Henri Füssli, The three witches, 1783, oil on canvas, Zurich, Kunsthaus.

He however does not succeed at the Prix de Rome and his low revenues keep him from perfecting his apprenticeship in Italy. Frequently visiting with the artistic bohemia and romantic circles, Préault virulently participates in the Battle of Hernani. His reputation as a man is then established, he now needs to ensure his reputation as an artist. In 1833, he exhibits at the Salon for the first time, and makes himself noticeable. The following year, Préault is placed at the forefront of attention in spite of himself: his low-relief Tuerie (Slaughter) is the object of extraordinarily vicious attacks from outspoken critics of Romanticism. Théophile Gautier denounces a “cowardly assassination” “lâche assassinat”8.

Systematically kept away from the Salon during the years that followed, Préault spent his time exhibiting in his atelier and honoring private commissions. Upon the outbreak of the Second Republic, Préault is finally able to return to the Salon. In 1849, he exhibits Silence at the Salon, which deeply moved critics, and is finally recognized officially as a powerful artist. He receives prestigious public commissions, especially since the Second Empire elevates Romanticism to a new academism. Préault works relentlessly and his personality becomes more dismal.

In 1871, during the Commune, a gunpowder depot catches fire on the rue Notre Dame des Champs, devastating his workshop located just a few meters away on the rue Vavin. Devastated by the loss of the majority of his work, models and sketches, he nevertheless is able to open a new atelier in 1874.

Weakened by a disease, he dies there five years later in 1879.

LITERATURE

FIG. 5 Henri Füssli, Macbeth consulting the vision of the Armed Head, 1793, oil on canvas, Washington, Folger Shakespeare Library.

J. Clarétie, Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains, Paris, Librairie Charpentier, 1874, p. 35-37.

D. Mower “Antoine Augustin Préault (1809-1879)”, The Art Bulletin, 63, 1981, p.

288-307.

I. Leroy-Jay Lemaistre, “Le Silence”, Nouvelles acquisitions du département des sculptures (1984-1987), (New acquisitions by the department of sculpture) 35, 1988, p. 120-123.

A. Lenormand-Romain, Mémoire de marbre. La sculpture funéraire en France 1804-1914, (Marble memory. Funereal sculpture in France) cat. expo. (Paris, BHVP, 23 juin – 17sept. 1995), Paris, BHVP, 1995, p. 162-166 et p. 355.

S. Bellenger and S. Blühm (éd.), Auguste Préault. Sculpteur romantique 18091879, cat. expo. (Paris, musée d’Orsay, February 20, 1997 – January 11, 1998, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum), Paris, Gallimard, 1997.

J. M. Bruson (ed.), Paris romantique, cat expo (Paris, Petit Palais, May 22 – Sept 15, 2019), Paris, Paris Musées, 2019.

8. Cf. Théophile Gautier, “Salon of 1849”, La Presse, 27 juillet 1849.

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JEAN-JOSEPH CARRIES (1855-1894)

13

The Novice France, circa 1888.

MATERIAL Original brown wax on plaster structure, unique piece.

DIMENSIONS H. 49 cm (19 ¼ in.), L. 37 cm (14 5/8 in.), D. 27 cm (10 5/8 in.).

PROVENANCE Ménard Dorian Collection.

“Pure sentimental evocation”. This is how Arsène Alexandre, a friend of JeanJoseph Carriès and author of one of the first books on his work, categorized and named “The Novice”. This gracious and mysterious wax sculpture is in truth a portrait of Agnès Carriès, the artist’s young sister with whom he had a close relationship. The sculptor was known to carry with him a photograph of the young girl at all times.

In 1876, Mother Callamand urged Carriès to promptly travel to Lyon to make a portrait of her sister wearing the novice veil, as she was dying from tuberculosis at the young age of eighteen in the Saint Jean orphanage. To honor her memory he modeled Agnès’ bust and captured her great beauty infused with innocence; thus our Novice was created. The style and genesis of this work leaves no doubt to the eye and senses that it seeks not to recreate reality. Rather it sublimates memories and interpretation, and emanates a powerful inner force instead of a superficial external perception. Carriès passionately lives through each of his creations.

Attesting to this, he initiates a language based on the nature of the work about to be created, then immediately strays away from it in place of apprehending and finalizing it. This explains why even his portraits are not completed after the model; at some point in the process, the model troubles and confuses him. As a consequence, he concludes without the model, infusing his composition instead with his own personal interpretation, thus creating a work of art instead of a portrait in and of itself. Even if the exact qualities of the young novice are not displayed in each of the juvenile, gracious, very contemplative and gentle characters featured in his work, at least her intense and softly troubling reminiscence of expression and grace are palpable. Our sculpture, as analyzed by Arsène Alexandre, belongs to a series representing individuals or objects that impacted the artist emotions during his childhood: memories, fears, visions or loyal kindness.

The use of wax is very important here as it reveals the work and exploration

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FIG. 1 Jean Carriès, The Novice, 1893, enameled stoneware, 45 x 36 x 30 cm, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris.

of the artist. Carriès was too poor to pay professional models other than “ragged” ones portrayed in his series of the “The Disinherited”. In order to pursue other experiments besides those offered by the Louvre and the sculptures of Notre-Dame, he found real life moldings. He would palpate and observe them at length, feeling their shape under his fingers where others would conceive them. He produced numerous studies and essays on skin and how to recreate it using wax. He so succeeded in this pursuit that he was accused of making life moldings himself. The surface aspect of each piece is a typical and central element of his work. His fingerprints are found on all his work. Before 1888, there were approximately twenty-one wax models in his production. This material inspired him to conduct countless explorations.

Wax, very much in vogue during the 19th century, renders reality, epidermis, life. It shortens intermediaries between workshop time and final completion.

The coat of wax is labored with incisions or added material. Brisk slits secure patina and light conferring pictorial effects to the sculpture.

Carriès not only washes his earthenware sculptures with water, he also applies a specific treatment to his wax creations, rinsing them several times with turpentine, giving it this peculiar finesse, a shiny and delicate epidermis.

Since wax itself in spite of its fragility offers a remarkable permanent quality, his wax creations can be considered extremely rare and precious pieces.

This wax piece, the last one still in private hands, is therefore absolutely exceptional and unprecedented. It was shown at the most important exhibition during the life time of the artist at the Salon of his renowned patrons: the Menard-Dorian. Since the artist produced the majority of his sculptures between 1880 and 1888, this exhibition concludes a phase following which he started working with sandstone and other vectors.

3 sandstone sculptures derive from this wax, including one now conserved at the Petit Palais created in 1893 in his workshop in Montriveau (Fig. 1).

Arsène Alexandre listed it as follows: The Novice: • Wax for Mme Ménard-Dorian • Stoneware with gold and silver highlights for Georges Hoentschel (conserved at the Petit-Palais).

• Stoneware white enamel, for Monsieur Jeanneney • Stoneware miscellaneous, workshop of Carriès The pure and emotional memories of his little sister also initiated a wax medallion of rare elegance, in the line of our Novice (Fig. 2).

“Death incidentally clarified many occurrences and shed on this entire life a striking light. It followed the man and artist step by step, as later revealed, walking by his side from his very early years, inspiring him, incorporating itself into his work, haunting his thoughts, and suddenly striking, like a partner jealous of his success. It dispenses over the entire work of Carriès this melancholic and proud beauty.”

Arsène Alexandre

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Jean Carries Jean Carriès was born in Lyon in 1855, the son of Jean Joseph Carriès, shoemaker, and Françoise Guérin. Both his parents died of tuberculosis when he was only six years old. He and his two brothers as well as his sister were placed in the charge of Marie Anne Callamand, mother superior of the orphanage of Sain-Jean des Filles de la Charité Saint-Vincent-de-Paul.

Jean Carriès started his apprenticeship at the age of thirteen in the devotional statues workshop of Pierre Vermare, before departing to Paris where he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Art and studied in the workshop of sculptor Augustin Dumont (1801-1884), and later Lehmann and Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900).

As early as 1875, Jean Carriès participated in the Salons and was commissioned the busts of Auguste Vacquerie, Léon Gambetta, and Gustave Courbet. He worked with wax, plaster and stoneware. His “tête décapitée de Charles Ier” (decapitated head of Charles 1st) and his busts of “The Disinherited” “Déshérités” made a strong impression at the Salon in 1881 and were praised by the critics.

In 1878, he was very impressed by the Japanese work he discovered at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Encouraged in that direction by Paul Gauguin, he took an interest in enameled stoneware.

In 1888, Jean Carriès established himself in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye (Nièvre) and took a radical artistic turn as a result of decades of maturation, focusing on ceramic sculpture and stoneware in particular. He created enameled ceramics: vases, gures, bottles, all demonstrated his expansive imagination and attraction for the unordinary, fully expressed in the monumental door commissioned in 1890 by Winnaretta Zinger, princess of Scey-Montbéliard, which remained unfinished.

Jean Carriès was named chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1892. He died of pleurisy on July 1, 1894.

FIG. 2 Jean Carriès, Young woman, known as “La Sœur de Carriès” “The Sister of Carriès”, wax, wood, 1892, 57 x 75 x 15 cm, Musée du Petit Palais.

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ODILON REDON (1840-1916)

14

Woman in the nude in enchanted forest France, circa 1870.

MATERIAL Charcoal on paper.

DIMENSIONS FRAMED H. 71,5 cm (28 1/8 in.), L. 54,5 cm (21 ½ in.).

DIMENSIONS UNFRAMED H. 54 cm (21 ¼ in.), L. 38 cm (15 in.).

FIG. 1 Rodolphe Bresdin, Le Bon Samaritain, (The Good Samaritan), Lithography, 1861, Brooklyn Museum.

Odilon Redon, painter, lithographer, watercolorist and drawing artist was born in Bordeaux in 1840. From his early days on, Redon kept his distance with the impressionist movement, rationalizing that it “reproduire la nature sans invention, de borner l’art et de lui refuser ses sources les plus fécondes : la pensée, l’inspiration, le génie…”1 (“reproduces nature without creativity, confining art and inhibiting its most fertile sources: thoughts, inspiration, genius…”2. Redon favors the exploration of imagination, expresses his exaltation towards nature and its mysteries, and quickly becomes inseparable from the symbolist movement. His apprenticeship of art and engraving with Rodolphe Bresdin (1822-1885) (Fig.1) and his immeasurable admiration for Delacroix (1798-1863) considerably influenced his work.

Inspired by the calling for Romanticism, Redon visits the Pyrénées in 1863. This period will be one of melancholic and solitary contemplation of nature, experimentation of sublimation and transcendence. After the 1870 war, he develops “his own conscience” and works exclusively on his “blacks” (Fig. 2), before starting in 1890 to focus on polychromie and the use of oil and water colors (Fig.3). In his isolated work, his cycles or illustrations, the artist dedicates himself to the exploration of imagination and the unconscious.

Between 1870 and 1895, Odilon Redon almost exclusively works on his “blacks” before relying, based on his admiration for Gustave Moreau (18261898), as well as Goya (1746-1828) to whom he paid homage in 1885, on the fantastic dimensions of biblical and mythological themes, the discovery of the infinitesimally small, nature, and the kingdom of dreams and nightmares.

In Femme nue dans la forêt enchantée, (Woman in the nude in enchanted forest), a feminine figure whose hair partly covers her naked body is standing 1. Odilon Redon, article published in La Gironde, 1868.

2. Odilon Redon, article published in La Gironde, 1868.

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FIG. 2 Odilon Redon, Enchanted Forest, charcoal, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux.

against a tree like a phantasmagorical figure emerging from the luxurious overgrown nature. The atmosphere is mysterious; the figure gazes at the spectator, time becomes endless, the scene seems suspended. Our drawing explores one of Redon’s symbols of predilection, the tree, as confirmed by Agnès Lacau: “The tree is fundamental in the work of Redon, a native of Peyrelebade (a swampy area in the Landes where Redon spent his childhood and adolescence with his uncle). Redon always incorporates the tree motif that he infuses with life and personality. A symbol of life, diving deep into the heart of the earth and soaring up towards the sky, the tree imposes its majestic verticality into the work of Odilon Redon, standing like a tutelary deity.”3 With Redon, form holds the power of symbolism. Our charcoal work is typical of his prolific imagination overflowing with enchanting and wondrous visions, sometimes melancholic and solemn. The artist however always renders his mysterious world with poetry and sensitivity: the blacks of his charcoals are intense and velvety, and the choice of nature as main source of inspiration always brings a oneiric dimension to his work.

LITERATURE

A. Wildenstein, Odilon Redon, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint et dessiné, vol. I. Portraits et figures, Paris, Bibliothèque des Arts, 1992, reproduced under n°607, p. 240.

3. Agnès Lacau, Alec Wildenstein, Catalogue raisonné of the work of Odilon Redon, p.237

FIG. 3 Odilon Redon, Ophelia among flowers, (Ophélie parmi les fleurs), watercolor, circa 1905, National Gallery, London.

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JEAN CARRIÈS (1855-1894)

15

Jules Breton With Hat Paris, 1885.

TECHNIQUE Patinated bronze, unique cast.

DIMENSIONS H. 67 cm (26 3/8 in.), L. 54 cm (21 ¼ in.), D. 35 cm (13 ¾ in.).

SIGNATURE Signed on the front right: Portrait de Jules Breton Maître Peintre et poète de mon temps par son ami Carriès (portrait of Jules Breton Master Painter and poet during my time by his friend Carriès). Dated on the right: Paris, en Août 1885.

Dedication on the back: Je dédie ce portrait de Breton à sa fille bien aimée Madame Demont par Carriès (I dedicate this portrait of Breton to his beloved daughter Madame Demont). Signed by the founder on the back of the base: Fondu par Bingen (cast by Bingen).

PROVENANCE Commissioned to the artist by Jules Breton, and remained in the family of the model.

EXHIBITIONS 1888, Paris, Hôtel Ménard Dorian, n°3. 1892, Paris, Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, n°1467 (app. à M. Jules Breton). 1895, Paris, Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des œuvres posthumes de Jean Carriès, n°141 (app. A M. Jules Breton). 1900, Paris, Exposition Universelle, Exposition centennale de l’art français, n°1520 (app. à M. Jules Breton).

While visiting the Salon of the National Society of Beaux-Arts in 1881, the acclaimed and respected Jules Breton did not expect to be greatly impressed with the work of a young sculptor from Lyon, who had just arrived in Paris a few years prior to have the opportunity to show his art. Carriès started exhibiting at the Salon in 1875, but it is in 1881 that his pieces are noticed and that he received wonderful reviews. “This busts, or rather those heads, (….), standing flat without a pedestal or a base, are so striking that one could think that they were initially captured live (“Ces bustes, ou plutôt ces têtes, (…) posées à plat sans piédouche ni socle, sont tellement saisissantes qu’on les croirait au premier abord moulé sur le vif ”), wrote a journalist about his Charles 1er.

Astounded by the propositions of Carriès that year, the master of pictorial surrealism in France promptly asks him to create his bust, a highly prestigious commission for our sculptor who is still looking for recognition. It will be the starting point of the vertiginous ascension of Carriès. In 1881, Jules Breton is a highly admired painter as well as one of the figures of the naturalist movement.

Weeks went by during the summer of 1881 without the sculptor nor his model feeling satisfied. The first proposition, a wax model today conserved in the Musée d’Orsay, displayed a bear headed Jules Breton with great simplicity

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FIG. 1 Jules Breton, 1881, wax, 50 x 26,5 x 25 cm Paris, musée d’Orsay.

FIG. 2 Bust of Jules Breton, 1881, patinated plaster, 48 x 27 x 27,5 cm, Paris, Musée du Petit Palais.

(Fig. 1 and 2). The following spring upon returning from a journey, without a model, Carriès remodels a bust with a completely different arrangement, wearing a blouse and large hat, emphasizing the strength of the painter, displaying an absorbed expression, permanently cast in bronze with one of the most precious and original patina. This formula, which brought about the success of the bust of Gustave Courbet as created by the artist in 1883, fully satisfies the painter. This need to recreate his work in solitude away from the ever present nature is part of the creative process of the sculptor, as observed even in more intimate pieces such as The Novice (La Novice), a portrait of his young sister. Two phases of his work have been identified and analyzed by his friend Arsène Alexandre: a laborious and sometimes even grueling observation of nature, followed by a direct and joyful execution on the emerging theme, based on the idea of the model that the artist ultimately mastered.

It took four years for our young sculptor to finally deliver this work, attesting to the particularly demanding nature of his model, but also, and mostly, of his own. The result is absolutely exceptional: beyond the incredible prestige centered around the identity of the artist and his model, the object itself commands rare desirability. He certainly creates an eminently elegant sculpture, with a remarkable appearance, dazzlingly attesting to what French sculpture during the second half of the 19th century offers at its finest.

Our bust vibrantly reflects the successful collaboration between Carriès and his bronze founder, Pierre Bingen. When they meet in 1883, Bingen is restoring the technique of lost wax using one spurt, neglected by other founders who favored the sand process allowing for greater circulation of sculptures. A strong collaboration is born between the two men who review and discuss the quality of each piece every step of the process. Carriès does not wish for a classic sand process that would weight down his delicate sculpture.

Another technique had to emerge for his complex and refined pieces, a process capable of embracing and scrupulously respecting the firmness of their lines and the subtleness of each detail. Only the lost wax process allowed the largest and more complex pieces to be cast in one squirt, eternalizing its fluff, while allowing the tight network of a thumb print to remain on the skin surface, thereby preserving the impression of the very breath of the creator.

This “four hands work”, exceptional at the time, is already heightened by the reviews. Firmin Javel comments on the work of Jean Carriès: “lost wax bronzes by one of the most praiseworthy, most passionate artisans of Paris, towards whom fortune rigorously acts in the most unfairly rigorous manner, M. Pierre Bingen, were covered with surprising patina, green, fawn, lightly orangey, blue-green (…)1”. “les bronzes à cire perdue par un des artisans de Paris le plus méritoire, le plus passionné et envers qui la fortune se montre le plus injustement rigoureuse, M. Pierre Bingen, ont été recouverts de patines surprenantes, vertes, fauves, sobrement orangées, glauques (…)”. The refinement of the lost wax process allows for a very elaborate patina. Carriès, who denunciated the impersonality of sculpture and its absence of sensitivity during that era, greatly emphasizes the importance of patina for each of his pieces, whether in bronze or plaster. Patina, a genuine skin, “lukewarm and 1. F. Javel, “Jean Carriès”, L’Art français, 30 juillet 1892.

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FIG. 3 Jules Breton with hat, 1885, patinated plaster, 71 x 55,7 x 40 cm, Paris, Musée du Petit-Palais.

translucent epidermis” according to Emile Gallé, gives life to his sculptures through subtle variations of colors.

While its wax is still in the workshop of founder Pierre Bingen in 1885, our bronze bust is exhibited among other work by Carriès at the Hôtel Ménard Dorian in 1888. Therefore this unique cast was created between those two dates. This important exhibition of the work of our sculptor held in April 1888 in the hôtel particulier of his friends and patrons, Monsieur and Madame Ménard Doria, was a large success, which led to the State purchasing some of his work.

Our bronze, unique and unprecedented, belongs to those “ideal portraits, enjoying a superior life, emanating from what was most delicate and tender in the imagination of Carriès, his pursuit of beauty and elevation in his perception of beings. Their finesse is extreme.” Rodin said: “Carriès’ talent is as fine as amber».»Le talent de Carriès est fin comme l’ambre”. Arsène Alexandre Arsène Alexandre listed as follows: Jules Breton: • Bust in bronze with lost wax. To Monsieur Jules Breton • Patinated plaster, to Achille Cesbron • Plaster, workshop of Carriès

Jean Carries Jean Carriès was born in Lyon in 1855, the son of Jean Joseph Carriès, shoemaker, and Françoise Guérin. Both his parents died of tuberculosis

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when he was only six years old. He and his two brothers as well as his sister were placed in the charge of Marie Anne Callamand, mother superior of the orphanage of Sain-Jean des Filles de la Charité Saint-Vincent-de-Paul.

Jean Carriès started his apprenticeship at the age of thirteen in the devotional statues workshop of Pierre Vermare, before departing to Paris where he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Art and studied in the workshop of sculptor Augustin Dumont (1801-1884), and later Lehmann and Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900).

As early as 1875, Jean Carriès participated in the Salons and was commissioned the busts of Auguste Vacquerie, Léon Gambetta, and Gustave Courbet. He worked with wax, plaster and stoneware. His “tête décapitée de Charles Ier» (decapitated head of Charles 1st) and his busts of “The Disinherited” “Déshérités” made a strong impression at the Salon in 1881 and were praised by the critics.

In 1878, he was very impressed by the Japanese work he discovered at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Encouraged in that direction by Paul Gauguin, he took an interest in enameled stoneware.

In 1888, Jean Carriès established himself in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye (Nièvre) and took a radical artistic turn as a result of decades of maturation, focusing on ceramic sculpture and stoneware in particular. He created enameled ceramics: vases, gures, bottles, all demonstrated his expansive imagination and attraction for the unordinary, fully expressed in the monumental door commissioned in 1890 by Winnaretta Zinger, princess of Scey-Montbéliard, which remained unfinished.

Jean Carriès was named chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1892. He died of pleurisy on July 1, 1894.

LITERATURE

Arsène Alexandre, Jean Carriès, imagier et potier, Paris, 1895, pp. 44, 206.

Amélie Simier, Jean-Carriès, La matière de l’étrange, Paris, 2007.

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HUGO HÖPPENER (1868-1948), KNOWN AS FIDUS

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Giordano Bruno

German School, February 1900.

TECHNIQUE Charcoal, pastel, watercolor, gold gouache highlights on paper.

DIMENSIONS TO THE EYE H. 60 cm (23 5/8 in.), L. 50 cm (19 11/16 in.).

DIMENSIONS FRAMED H. 78,5 cm (30 7/8 in.), L. 68,5 cm (27 in.).

SIGNATURE Signed bottom right Fidus, dated bottom left: II 1900.

EXHIBITIONS 1928, Hamburg, Berlin, Erste Gesamtausstellung der Werke von Fidus, n°30, First monographic exhibition of the work of Fidus.

PROVENANCE Private collection.

FIG. 1 Fidus and Diefenbach, 1887.

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Powerful, hypnotic and highly symbolic, this work, as an homage to the reflection of Giordano Bruno, perfectly defines the pictorial and intellectual universe of one of the most important German artists in the beginning of the 20th century: Hugo Höppener known as Fidus.

Born in 1868 in Lübeck, Hugo Höppener discovers his passion for drawing during his childhood. In 1887, he studies at the Ecole des Beaux Art in Munich. There, he meets Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (1851-1913) (Fig. 1) a great master of symbolist painting, who had an important influence on his life and became more than just a professor to Höppener, who devoted his unfailing admiration towards him to the point of abandoning his studies to live as a recluse in an abandoned quarry in the community of Diefenbach South of Munich.

It is then that Höppener takes on the name of Fidus, a sobriquet given by his master for his loyalty, which he will keep for the rest of his life. These years bring great artistic and intellectual affluence to Fidus. He produces with Diefenbach a sixty eight meters long fresco, Per Aspera Ad Astra (Fig. 2), entirely composed of silhouettes, nevertheless Fidus most importantly experiments a new life style. In this community, members grow their hair, beard, wear cotton and eat a vegetarian diet; these are the premises of what will be later called Lebensreform: the theory of the refusal of industrialization, urbanization, and the pledge for a radical return to nature. This appeal for nature, its symbols and mysteries permanently impact the art of Fidus.

FIG. 2 Fidus and Diefenbach, Per Aspera Ad Astra, details.

FIG. 3 Illustration for the Jugend publication, 1897.

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The 1890’s are determinant for Fidus, who decides to walk away from the Diefenbach community, but also meets his future companion, also an artist.

Together, they leave Germany for Norway and Sweden. There Fidus discovers all the subtleties of the Nordic mythology, which considerably influences his work, to the point that he is now considered today one of the fathers of the esthetic Nordic thought.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Fidus is at the apogee of his career, and produces a large number of illustrations for books and reviews, and his work is very largely distributed (Fig. 3).

Beyond the commissions he receives, Fidus creates with a more personal touch, expressing all together the synthesis of his esthetic experiences as well as his attachment to precepts or intellectual personalities. Among these iconic pieces is the series of the temples, monumental architectural projects he imagines as true artistic pilgrimage; and also another series, equally important, delivering references to statuary just like our drawing. Thus, he creates a series as an homage to Goethe (Fig. 4), Beethoven (Fig. 5) as well as Giordano Bruno.

FIG.4

FIG. 5

Goethe-Bust, 1897.

Beethoven-Temple, 1903.

FIG. 6 Ettore Ferrari, Giordano Bruno, Campo de’Fiori, Rome.

Our drawing, recreating the features of the statue of the Campo de’ Fiori (Fig. 6) by Ettore Ferrari, was created three hundred days to the day after the death of Bruno on the pyre, condemned on the basis of heresy by the inquisition. A Dominican monk and a philosopher defending the Copernican school of thoughts, heliocentrism and the infinity of the universe, Bruno’s ideas attract new followers in the very beginning of the 20th century, especially Rudolf Steiner. The principles of monad, of perfect unity, infinite, philosophical pantheism and the presence of God in everything, will be the foundation of the anthroposophical ideas of Steiner, of whom Fidus becomes one of his most devoted adept. Fidus created other work dedicated to Giordano Bruno, especially those published as postcard. Given its date of creation, our version might be considered as the oldest one and one of the main work of the artist. This drawing will find a particular echo in the destiny of Fidus, categorized as one of the most “degenerate artists” by the 3rd Reich, censored and prohibited from exhibiting his work, which drove him towards the end of his life into precariousness and oblivion, in the image of Bruno three centuries earlier, a man with a novel and free spirit, a victim of the intolerance of his contemporaries.

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