English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: September 2016

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

Jean Baltazar Keller (1638 - 1702).

The Bronze Founder

by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659 - 1743)

With the Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV by Girardon in the background.

The first equestrian statue cast in one piece in modern times.

How to Cast a Life Size Equestrian Statue - Made Easy.

How to Cast an Equestrian Statue in Bronze - Made Easy.

In French.

The Short version.

(published after 1771).

Excerpt from unidentified quarto re-edition of the Encyclopédie, ou, Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Recueil de planches, vol. 8, originally published 1771. Diderot and Alambert.

The plates illustrated here and the Plates in the Diderot Alembert Encyclopaedia were copied and somewhat simplified from the originals from Boffrand.

These plates and their explanations are influenced heavily by the writing and descriptions of Germain Boffrand (1667 - 1754). Boffrand had served as the architect for many 18th-century French aristocrats, and had been a witness to the casting of Louis XIV's statue by Giradon and Jean-Balthazar Keller.

A pupil of Hardouin Mansart he published his influential Livre d'Architecture in 1745 see - https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125010919435#page/n7/mode/2up

On hearing of the troubles Jean - Baptiste Lemoyne (1704 - 78) was having casting a similar statue of Louis XV, Boffrand sought to assist Lemoyne, recognising that he was the only remaining assistant who had been present and taken notes at the earlier casting by the Kellers.

Boffrand wrote his Description de ce qui a été Practiqué pour Fondre en Bronze d'un Seul Jet la Figure Équestre de Louis XIV, (see below) enabling Lemoyne to complete his work, although this statue was also later destroyed in the Revolution.

These pages from -

- https://archive.org/details/fontedesstatuese00unse

The First published work on the subject of casting an equestrian statue in bronze in one piece is -

Description de ce qui a été pratiqué pour fondre en bronze d'un seul jet la figure équestre de Louis XIV, élevée par la ville de Paris dans la place de Louis le Grand, en 1699…, by Germain Boffrand, Paris, Guillaume Cavelier, published in 1743.

Available online at - https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125010863229#page/n3/mode/2up

The next published work is Description des travaux qui ont précédé, accompagné et suivi la fonte en bronze d'un seul jet de la statue équestre de Louis XV, le Bien-Aimé, Pierre Jean Mariette, published 1768.

Available online at - https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125010908289#page/n5/mode/2up

Sunday, 25 September 2016

Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV by Coysevox at Rennes

The Bronze Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV

by Antoine Coysevox (1640 -1720).

Engraving below by Simon Thomassin (1655 - 1733).

465 x 340 mm.

Contracted 9 June 1686 for 90,000 Livres.

Arrived in Nantes 1716.

Erected in 1726 in the Place Royale in Rennes.

Destroyed in the French Revolution 1792.

The two bronze plaques on the plinth survive in the Rennes Museum.

One represents France Triumphant over the seas (see drawing below) the other the presentation to the King of Coysevox's project in the presence of the Siamese Ambassadors.

see Souchal, French Sculptors ....1977.

Engraving by Thomassin dated 1699.

Royal Collection.

Anonymous Watercolour 45 x 29 cms.

Dated 1725.

Bibliotheque Rennes, Brittany.

Engraving after Huguet.

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From a map of 1725.

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Just to muddy the waters Sotheby's London sold a magnificent riderless bronze statuette which was attributed to Antoine Coysevox and described as 18th Century.

I am not entirely convinced. There are distinct similarities to the engraving above but the foliage on the base is not depicted in the Thomassin engraving. There is no provenance prior to 1791.

More work need to take place particularly close comparisons with other versions of the French equestrian statues of Louis XIV and Louis XV, before there is a definitive answer

The saddle cloth has been cast separately.

On a personal note if I could have any of the equestrian statuettes this is the one I would want.

Provenance - probably? Joseph Depestre, Count of Seneffe and Turnhout, Château de Seneffe, Hainaut, Belgium, by 1791;
thence by descent to his heirs;
probably their sale, 24 October to 17 November 1825;
probably Viscount Mathieu Denis Claire Talon, Marquis of Boulay, until 1853;
by descent to Denis Gabriel Victor Talon and Marquise Carolina Sampieri, Villa Talon, Bologna, circa 1853;
and thence by family descent

A quote from Sotheby's Catalogue -

As few as four? versions of the present horse survive, of which only two measure an extraordinary 89 by 83 centimetres. The spectacular size of the present bronze as well as the rounded Baroque elegance and movement of the model have rightly led art historians to associate the model with a long-lost equestrian monument to Louis XIV that towered over the city of Rennes before the Revolution.

Both this bronze and the other large version were once in the possession of the noble Talon-Sampieri family of Italy and were probably inherited from their Belgian ancestor Joseph Depestre, the Count of Seneffe and Turnhout. The high regard in which the model has been held is illustrated by Depestre’s early inventories and estate sale catalogue: “Un Cheval de Bronze, dit le fameux cheval de bronze. Cette piece est unique par toutes ces perfections et beauté.”

My highlight!

For Sotheby's full Catalogue entry see -

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.29.html/2015/treasures-l15303

The Sotheby's Catalogue suggests that the horse of the Equestrian statue in the Grunes Gewolbe, Dresden of Augustus the Strong is a version of this model but Francois Souchal in French Sculptors.....attributes it to Le Hongre. It was cast in two parts - the rider is a separate cast. see my blog entry for the Le Hongre statue at Dijon and its versions.

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/reduced-model-of-equestrian-statue-of.html

Reduced Model of the Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV by Le Hongre for Dijon

The Reduced Bronze Models of the original Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV.

by Etienne Le Hongre (1628 - 1690).

The Original constructed for La Place Royale at Dijon.

Commissioned by les Etats de Bourgogne and contracted on 18 May 1686, it was eventually erected on la Place d'Armes in front of the Logis du Roi in Dijon in 1748 (destroyed in 1792).

The model was completed and the cast is taken immediately afterwards in 1690 the year of the death of Le Hongre.

In 1692, the statue was transported by boat along the rivers Seine and Yonne to Auxerre. The poor state of the roads and the weight of the two pieces of bronze sculpture halted the journey.

The statue and the horse were then stored in a barn in the village of La Brosse for 27 years. Is was only in 1720 that it was to be successfully transported to Dijon, where it was then stored in the Courtyard of the Logis du Roi.

There was a wait another four years until a decision was made regarding the design of the pedestal . Jacques - Ange Gabriel, architect in ordinary to the King, completed the design in 1725, but the décoration of the base was not completed, and surrounded by railings until 1742, the commemorative inscriptions were not completed until 1747. A space of 62 years between inception and completion!

see - https://mba.dijon.fr/sites/default/files/Collections/pdf/le_hongre_statue_de_louis_xiv.pdf

Design by Harduin Mansart

Jean Baptiste Lallemand, 1781

Musee des Beaux Arts Dijon

The Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV

A late 17th Century reduced cast attributed to Etienne Le Hongre.

Bronze

48 x 37 cms

Musee de Dijon.

Drawing by Edme Bouchardon for the projected pedestal for the Dijon statue dated 1724.

Musee de Dijon

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Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV

by Etienne Le Hongre (1628 - 90)

Bronze: High. 34.5 Long. 32 width. 15 cm.

Base: High. 10.5 Long. 28 width. 15.5 cm. High. total: 45 cm. (Queue and right guide restored, repaired patina).

Provenance : The family of the architect of the Place Royale, Dijon - Martin Durey Count Noinville (Paris, c 1658 - Dijon, 1728.), Architect of the Royal Place, Dijon. - For descendants of Alix Durey Noinville wife Octave Raguenet Saint-Albin, 17 rue d'Illiers Orleans, 1882. - By descent, private collection, Orleans.

This version sold at Auction by SVV Rouillac. Sunday, June 7. 2014 Château d'Artigny, Montbazon (Indre-et-Loire).

see - http://www.rouillac.com/Garden_Party/la_garden_party_ruban_bleu_des_ventes_en_France_depuis_1989/473-FR-Le_Hongre

Photographs courtesy Messrs Rouillac.

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Another version of this bronze statuette of Louis XIV

by le Hongre

at the Chateau of Versailles.

45.5 x 35 cms

Described as 'Réduction de la statue équestre du roi commandée par les Etats de Bourgogne le 18 mai 1686, érigée sur la place d'Armes de Dijon seulement en 1748 (détruite en 1792)- bronze fin 17e siècle'

This statuette was acquired by Versailles in 2009 - the Versailles Collection website states that the State of Burgundy commissioned an Equestrian Statue of the king from the sculptor Etienne le Hongre to be cast by the founders Aubry et Scabol, a statuette was placed in the collection of the King's bronzes in the centre of the Oval Room at Versailles.

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Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV.

Prado Museum Madrid.

108 x 87 cms

The say Early 18th Century - Studio of Girardon.

But there are obvious differences - particularly the sword and saddle.

Noted in the inventory of Felipe V, La Granja, 1746.

It is ascribed to Le Hongre by Souchal in French Sculptors .......

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This Version formerly with Tomasso Brothers dealers of Leeds and London

attributed to le Hongre.

Various other versions of Le Hongres version of the Equestrian Statue of Louis XIV exist.

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Augustus the Strong in the Green Room (Grunes Gewolbe) in Dresden.

Cast from a model by Le Hongre but the head replaced with that of Augustus.

Acquired in Paris in 1716 by Raymond le Plat

Poor low res photograph from

http://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/de/contents/showSearch?id=117344#longDescription

This pre war photograph taken before the destruction of the original stand. The bronze slaves survived.

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An Eighteenth Century Riderless Bronze Equestrian Statuette.

Sotheby's London sold a superb riderless equestrian statuette on 8 July 2015, lot 29.

attributing it to Coysevox and dating it to the late 18th century.

The saddle cloth has been cast separately.

83 x 87 x 31 cms.

Provenance -

probably Joseph Depestre, Count of Seneffe and Turnhout, Château de Seneffe, Hainaut, Belgium, by 1791; thence by descent to his heirs;

Probably their sale, 24 October to 17 November 1825; probably Viscount Mathieu Denis Claire Talon, Marquis of Boulay, until 1853; by descent to Denis Gabriel Victor Talon and Marquise Carolina Sampieri, Villa Talon, Bologna, circa 1853; and thence by family descent.

see - http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.29.html/2015/treasures-l15303

Roman Marble Equestrian Statue of Caligula, British Museum.

Roman Marble Equestrian Statue of Caligula,

British Museum.

Height 2.05 metres approx.

second century AD.

The statue was found in or near Rome in the sixteenth century, was then restored by Giacomo della Porta, and from 1652 stood in the Palazzo Farnese. Restorations include the youth's arms and three of the horse's legs. Purchased from the King of Naples in 1864.

When the sculpture first entered the Museum it was identified as a portrait of the emperor Caligula or Gaius (AD 37-41) in his youth. Later it was thought that the head might not belong to the body, and that the body itself dated to the mid-later second century, representing, perhaps, one of the imperial princes of that period. During recent cleaning, however, it was observed that the marble of the head of the youth and the unrestored parts of the horse were the same.

This information and images from the British Museum