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FRANCE OU ITALIE, VERS 1820

Lot 35
21.11.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Starting price
€ 20 000
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1336106
Lot 35 | FRANCE OU ITALIE, VERS 1820
Estimate value
€ 20 000 – 30 000
FRANCE OU ITALIE, VERS 1820
Buste représentant Antoinette-Joséphine Davout d'Auerstaedt (1805-1821)
marbre
H. 46 cm (18 in.), H. totale : 56 cm (22 in.)




Provenance

Probablement commandé par le père du modèle, Louis Nicolas Davout, duc d'Auerstaedt, prince d'Eckmühl (1770-1823), ou son époux, Achille Pierre Vigier, pair de France (1801-1868),
Transmis à la sœur du modèle, Adèle Napoléone Davout d’Auerstaedt (1807-1885), puis à son fils unique,
Louis Napoléon de Cambacérès (1832-1868), puis sa fille aînée,
Zénaïde Napoléone Louise Lucienne de Cambacérès (1857-1932), puis son fils,
Louis Joseph Suchet d’Albufera (1877-1953), 4e duc d'Albufera, puis par descendance jusqu'à nos jours.



Further Details

A MARBLE BUST REPRESENTING ANTOINETTE-JOSÉPHINE DAVOUT D'AUERSTAEDT (1805-1821), FRENCH OR ITALIAN, CIRCA 1820

Louis Davout and Aimée Leclerc’s wedding was blessed by Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine. Aimée was the sister of General Leclerc, who was Pauline Bonaparte's first husband and the First Consul's brother-in-law. This union was a means for Bonaparte to make Davout, his future famous Marshal of the Empire, a member of his family.

In 1804, Louis Davout (1770-1823), Duke of Auerstaedt and Prince of Eckmühl, was appointed Marshal of the Empire by the Emperor. Moses Mendelssohn’s niece and Fanny Sebastiani’s governess, Miss Henriette Mendelssohn wrote the intimate portrait of this man of war. She describes him as a loving husband and devoted father : ‘Seeing this man at home with his children, his political life escapes me. […] he puts his whole heart into playing with them. His eldest daughter, who is fourteen, is the sweetest creature I know. (Louise Adélaïde d'Eckmühl, Le maréchal Davout, prince d'Eckmühl, correspondance inédite,, Paris, 1887, p. 265)
His young daughter mentioned in this quotation was named Antoinette-Joséphine (1805-1821). According to her parents, she seemed to possess many qualities : her mother, in her correspondence, evoked her ‘intelligence, amiability and perfect grace’ (Letter of 24 June 1808, Louise Adélaïde d'Eckmühl, Le maréchal Davout, prince d'Eckmühl, vol. 1, Paris, 1879, pp. 99-100), while her father praised ‘her always perfect character’ (Letter of 31 December 1819, private collection). In 1820, she married to Achille Pierre Vigier (1801-1868), a future peer of France and member of parliament.

Reflecting the sitter’s grace and beauty, this bust was probably commissioned when she got married, before her untimely death. She died just a few months after this sculpture was made. Although its authorship remains difficult to determine, the sculptor must have been one of the artists usually commissioned by this illustrious Empire family (François-Joseph Bosio, Buste du maréchal Davout, Auxerre, Hôtel de ville). Exalting the purity and the idealisation characteristic of neoclassicism, it was certainly made by an artist working in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Since its creation, the bust has remained in the sitter’s family. It was exhibited for a while in the Salon Bleu of the Château de Bizy. Built in the 17th century, this château was first transformed by the Duc of Belle-Isle in the 18th century. After the Revolution, it was rebuilt by its successive owners, including General Le Suire, then the Duchess of Orléans and her son, the future King Louis-Philippe, and finally Baron Fernand de Schickler. It is the Suchet family who brought this bust to Bizy. Louis Joseph Suchet d'Albufera, 4th Duke of Albufera, exhibited the bust he had inherited from his great-grandmother, Adèle Davout d'Auerstaedt, in the château inherited from Baron de Schickler.
Medium:Marble, Stone
Place of origin:Western Europe, France, Italy, Europe
Category:Bust
Auction house category:Sculptures, Statues & Figures
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