LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART PART I  / 

23

HONORÉ DAUMIER (1808-1879) Les célébrités du juste-milieu (Bustes de Trente-six Parlementaires) b...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:650,000.00 - 850,000.00 USD
HONORÉ DAUMIER (1808-1879) Les célébrités du juste-milieu (Bustes de Trente-six Parlementaires) b...
HONORÉ DAUMIER
(1808-1879)
Les célébrités du juste-milieu
(Bustes de Trente-six Parlementaires)
bronze
conceived ca. 1832-1835
and cast between 1955-1960
Estimate: $650,000-850,000 <p>Provenance
Mme. Maurice Le Garrec, Paris
Cordier, Paris
Anon. sale: Hôtel Drouot Richelieu, Paris, December 15, 1999, lot 5
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner <p>Exhibited
Kobe, Kamakura, Gunma, Japan, Daumier, sculpteur et lithographie, 1975
Montargis, Musée Girodet, Daumier, 1980
Rome, Accademia di Francia, Honoré Daumier, Georges Rouault, November 25, 1983-February 5, 1984, pp. 68-83, nos. 1.1-1.36 (illustrated, pp. 26-37)
Pontoise, Musée Pissarro, Honoré Daumier 1808-1879, May 9-26, 1985, nos. 1-36 (illustrated) <p>Literature
Maurice Gobin, Daumier Sculpteur, 1808-1879, Geneva, 1952 (the plasters and other casts illustrated)
Galerie Sagot-Le Garrec, Daumier Sculpteur-Les bustes des Parlementaires, Paris, 1979 (the plasters and other casts illustrated)
Jeanne L. Wasserman, Daumier Sculpture: A Critical and Comparative Study, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 1969, pp. 44-160 (the plasters and other casts illustrated)
Antoinette le Normand-Romain, Les Parlementaires, portraits des célébrités du juste-milieu, Paris, 1993, pp. 5-95 (the plasters illustrated)
Although Daumier was never known as a sculptor during his lifetime, except to a close circle of friends, his innovative understanding and visionary adaptation of the medium is nowhere better reflected than in this group of satirized bourgeoisie busts. It was not until his retrospective at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1878, under the patronage of Victor Hugo, that his sculptural endeavors were revealed to the public and were met with critical acclaim. Daumier's three-dimensional works are often seen as preparatory "sketches" for his considerable body of lithography. However, a dichotomy exists between the prints, which ordinarily depict the lower and working classes, and the sculptural works, which instead allude to the bourgeoisie. In the present 36 pieces, we see these characterizations revealed as comical parodies, their arrogance ridiculed by their facial expressions. It was the museum director and patron, Alexandre Lenoir (1761-1839), who, having seen some of young Daumier's sketches of sculptures in the Louvre, persuaded the artist's father to allow him to follow an artistic career. Indeed, it was under the tutelage of Lenoir, a traditional academician, that Daumier learned to draw from plaster casts of facial features, an application he objected to as he believed he already had an excellent visual memory for such details. However, in an age where it was widely believed that a man's motives could be interpreted, at least in part, by his facial expressions, this practice was to prove vital to Daumier's profession as a satirist and ultimately his development as an artist.
At this time, while living among a circle of bohemian friends, he met the young sculptor Auguste Preault (1810-1970). It was with Preault's encouragement that Daumier was to develop his own untrained hand and began to model clay portrait busts based upon sketches taken from parliamentary sessions. The clay models for the present bronzes are thought to have been commissioned by the publicist Charles Philipon, who hired Daumier as cartoonist for the newly founded post-Revolution satirical journals, La Caricature and Le Charivari.
It is not certain how many busts Daumier completed, as some of the unbaked maquettes are likely to have perished. However, in 1927, Maurice Le Garrec acquired 36 of the surviving busts and subsequently cast them in bronze, of which very few complete sets now exist. The National Gallery of Washington owns the set collected by Lessing J. Rosenwald. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyons, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseilles, and the Deutsche Akademie der Kunste in Berlin each have a set. Otherwise the set previously owned by the Count Aldo Borletti di Arosio (each numbered 19 and sold at Christie's in London on November 30, 1992, lot 2) and the present lot are the only complete sets still known to be in private hands.
The plaster busts from which these bronzes were cast had been in the possession of Charles Philipon, with whom Daumier had left them in the 1830s. The Philipon family kept them in two glass cases until 1927, when they were sold to Maurice Le Garrec, who arranged for them to be cast in bronze by Barbédienne. Barbédienne cast the busts in an edition of 25 except for d'Argout, Fulchiron, Guizot, Harle, Lameth, Odier, Pataille, Prunelle, Viennet, and no. xxiii unknown, which were cast in an edition of 30. It was only by ca. 1948 that complete editions of all 36 busts had been finished. Following the closure of the Barbédienne foundry in 1953, the plaster busts were returned to Madame Le Garrec, who arranged for the Valsuani foundry to cast a final edition of three bronzes of each of the 36 busts for herself and her two daughters. Each set is distinguished by the stamped initials LG, C, and Mme H. Each bust in this set is stamped with the initials of Maurice Le Garrec, "MLG," the foundry mark "Valsuani Cire Perdue, Paris," and "LG."
The Bronzes
i
D'Argout
height: 5 in. (12.8 cm)
ii
Baillot
height: 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm)
iii
Barthe
height: 6 3/8 in. (16.2 cm)
iv
Chevandier de Valdrome
height: 7 1/8 in. (18.3 cm)
v
Cunin-Gridaine
height: 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm)
vi
Delessert
height: 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm)
vii
Delort
height: 9 1/4 in. (23.6 cm)
viii
Abraham dit Abraham-Dubois
height: 7 13/16 in. (19.9 cm)
ix
Dupin
height: 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm)
x
Etienne
height: 6 3/8 in. (16.2 cm)
xi
Falloux du coudray
height: 8 7/8 in. (22.7 cm)
xii
Fruchard
height: 5 in. (12.8 cm)
xiii
Fulchiron
height: 63/8 in. (16.2 cm)
xiv
Gallois
height: 8 5/16 in. (21.4 cm)
xv
Ganneron
height: 7 in. (17.9 cm)
xvi
Gaudry
height: 6 5/16 in. (16 cm)
xvii
Guizot
height: 8 11/16 in. (22.1 cm)
xviii
Harle
height: 4 11/16 in. (11.9 cm)
xix
Kératry
height: 4 3/16 in. (12.2 cm)
xx
Lameth
height: 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm)
xxi
Lecomte
height: 6 9/16 in. (16.7 cm)
xxii
Lefebvre
height: 7 3/4 in. (19.7 cm)
xxiii
Montlosier
height: 7 1/2 in. (19 cm)
xxiv
Odier
height: 5 1/2 in. (14 cm)
xxv
Pataille
height: 6 9/16 in. (16.7 cm)
xxvi
Persil
height: 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm)
xxvii
Podenas
height: 8 in. (20.3 cm)
xxviii
Prunelle
height: 5 1/16 in. (12.8 cm)
xxix
Royer-Collard
height: 5 in. (12.7 cm)
xxx
Sébastiani
height: 5 1/16 in. (12.8 cm)
xxxi
Vatout
height: 7 5/8 in. (19.4 cm)
xxxii
Viennet
height: 7 7/8 in. (20 cm)
xxxiii
unknown (Girod de l'Ain or verheuil)
height: 5 in. (12.7 cm)
xxxiv
unknown (Pelet de la Lozére or huart)
height: 5 5/16 in. (13.5 cm)
xxxv
unknown (Le Rieur Edenté, charles philpon)
height: 6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm)
xxxvi
unknown (Soult, duc de dalmatie)
height: 5 1/8 in. (14.9 cm)
HONORÉ DAUMIER
(1808-1879)
Les célébrités du juste-milieu
(Bustes de Trente-six Parlementaires)
bronze
conceived ca. 1832-1835
and cast between 1955-1960
Estimate: $650,000-850,000 <p>Provenance
Mme. Maurice Le Garrec, Paris
Cordier, Paris
Anon. sale: Hôtel Drouot Richelieu, Paris, December 15, 1999, lot 5
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner <p>Exhibited
Kobe, Kamakura, Gunma, Japan, Daumier, sculpteur et lithographie, 1975
Montargis, Musée Girodet, Daumier, 1980
Rome, Accademia di Francia, Honoré Daumier, Georges Rouault, November 25, 1983 February 5, 1984, pp. 68-83, nos. 1.1-1.36 (illustrated, pp. 26-37)
Pontoise, Musée Pissarro, Honoré Daumier 1808-1879, May 9-26, 1985, nos. 1-36 (illustrated) <p>Literature
Maurice Gobin, Daumier Sculpteur, 1808-1879, Geneva, 1952 (the plasters and other casts illustrated)
Galerie Sagot-Le Garrec, Daumier Sculpteur-Les bustes des Parlementaires, Paris, 1979 (the plasters and other casts illustrated)
Jeanne L. Wasserman, Daumier Sculpture: A Critical and Comparative Study, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA, 1969, pp. 44-160 (the plasters and other casts illustrated)
Antoinette le Normand-Romain, Les Parlementaires, portraits des célébrités du juste-milieu, paris, 1993, pp. 5-95 (the plasters illustrated)
Although Daumier was never known as a sculptor during his lifetime, except to a close circle of friends, his innovative understanding and visionary adaptation of the medium is nowhere better reflected than in this group of satirized bourgeoisie busts. It was not until his retrospective at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1878, under the patronage of Victor Hugo, that his sculptural endeavors were revealed to the public and were met with critical acclaim. Daumier's three-dimensional works are often seen as preparatory "sketches" for his considerable body of lithography. However, a dichotomy exists between the prints, which ordinarily depict the lower and working classes, and the sculptural works, which instead allude to the bourgeoisie. In the present 36 pieces, we see these characterizations revealed as comical parodies, their arrogance ridiculed by their facial expressions.
It was the museum director and patron, Alexandre Lenoir (1761-1839), who, having seen some of young Daumier's sketches of sculptures in the Louvre, persuaded the artist's father to allow him to follow an artistic career. Indeed, it was under the tutelage of Lenoir, a traditional academician, that Daumier learned to draw from plaster casts of facial features, an application he objected to as he believed he already had an excellent visual memory for such details. However, in an age where it was widely believed that a man's motives could be interpreted, at least in part, by his facial expressions, this practice was to prove vital to Daumier's profession as a satirist and ultimately his development as an artist.
At this time, while living among a circle of bohemian friends, he met the young sculptor Auguste Preault (1810-1970). It was with Preault's encouragement that Daumier was to develop his own untrained hand and began to model clay portrait busts based upon sketches taken from parliamentary sessions. The clay models for the present bronzes are thought to have been commissioned by the publicist Charles Philipon, who hired Daumier as cartoonist for the newly founded post-Revolution satirical journals, La Caricature and Le Charivari.
It is not certain how many busts Daumier completed, as some of the unbaked maquettes are likely to have perished. However, in 1927, Maurice Le Garrec acquired 36 of the surviving busts and subsequently cast them in bronze, of which very few complete sets now exist. The National Gallery of Washington owns the set collected by Lessing J. Rosenwald. The Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyons, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseilles, and the Deutsche Akademie der Kunste in Berlin each have a set. Otherwise the set previously owned by the Count Aldo Borletti di Arosio (each numbered 19 and sold at Christie's in London on November 30, 1992, lot 2) and the present lot are the only complete sets still known to be in private hands.
Sign In to Bookmark Lot