Lot n° 98
Estimation :
6000 - 8000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 13 000EUR
PAJOU Augustin (1780-1809).
Allegory of the birth of the Dauphin.
Terracotta group, resting on a carved and gilded wooden base. Representing, in the guise of Venus, Queen Marie-Antoinette coming out of the water supported by dolphins and holding her first son, the dauphin Louis-Joseph, born on October 22, 1781. Slight wear from the time, but good general condition.
H. : 54 cm - Diam. : 30,5 cm.
History : to commemorate the long-awaited birth of the dauphin, Prince Louis-Joseph of France, the Count d'Angiviller (1730-1809), director general of the King's Buildings, commissioned in 1781 the artist to create a group in Sevres porcelain. The sculptor delivered the work on 24 December 1781, but the author of this work had given Venus the features of the queen and because of the nudity of the goddess and the resemblance of the face, the work was judged unseemly by the sovereign who refused it. On January 20, 1782, the director of the Sèvres manufactory was ordered to change the physiognomy of Venus' head and to remove the fleur-de-lis from the drapery. The master made the requested changes and the model could be put on sale. Louis-Simon Boizot, who was to make it, wrote: "Mr. Pajou asked me if there was not a way to have the group in question in plaster so that the whole could be better chosen; similarly, concerning the fleurs de lys to be removed from the drapery, he told me that there was nothing to change in the mould, and that the repairers could remove them. The biscuit copies marketed by the factory were acquired only by members of the royal family, three by King Louis XVI in 1782, another by the Count of Artois, on August 16 of the same year, and a fifth in January 1783 by the Duchess of Civrac for Madame Victoire, one of the king's aunts. Curiously, none of these modified editions is known today, only plaster and terracotta versions in its original form remain. As if the artist had not modified Angivilller's requests, or if finally this version had found favour with the public and served as a model for the many later biscuit versions that we know today.
Reference : This work was presented as part of the exhibition devoted to the artist: "Pajou Sculpteur du Roi", in 1997. See the reproduction of this piece under the n°218 of the catalogue on pages 217 and 218. See another version of this work in plaster with a terracotta patina on a base in Rance marble and turquoise blue in the catalogue of the exhibition "Marie-Antoinette" at the Grand Palais from March 15 to June 30, 2008, page 128, kept at the Château de Versailles, under the inventory number: MV 8108. This allegory was illustrated on the cover of the magazine Connaissance des Arts, in August 1961. See also a contemporary version in biscuit, in the exhibition catalogue "Vivre à l'antique de Marie-Antoinette à Napoléon Ier", Monelle Hayot editions, Paris, 2012, page 126.
Provenance : former collection of the Countess Sala, born Mrs Laura Kayser (1874-1961), wife of a French diplomat Count Antoine Sala (1871-1947), at the death of the latter she became the wife of Mr. Edwin S. Bayer. It is interesting to know that the father of the count, André-Adolphe Sala (1802-1867), was the companion in arms of the duchess of Berry in 1832 during the attempted uprising in the Vendée. This work was acquired for the sum of, then put up for sale on 17 and 18 November 1961 at the Parke-Bernet gallery in New York, under the number 211. Then in the 1970s, it entered the collection of the banker André Meyer (1898-1979). It will be sold at the time of the sale of his estate by Sotheby's in New York, on October 22, 1980 under the n°1 - Then put on sale at Sotheby's Paris, on June 25, 2003, under the n°72.
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