ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE VERS 1869 - Lot 230

Lot n° 230
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Result : 2 470EUR
ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE VERS 1869 - Lot 230
ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE VERS 1869 The death of Alphonse de Lamartine (1790 -1869) Original terracotta sketch. Signed with a USL monogram, and dated 1869. H_20 cm Provenance: former André Level collection (1863 - 1947) The famous poet died in Paris in 1869 in relative indifference, he is buried in private at the Château de Saint Point. It was not until 1873 and the competition opened by the city of Mâcon that the memory of the great man of letters was celebrated with a monument. Our interesting terracotta sketch, dated in the year of Lamartine's death, does not follow the codes of commemorative monuments. Rather, it is imbued with the romantic language of the funerary art of the time and more particularly with the mortuary portrait, a traditional genre brought up to date by Ary Scheffer and his portrait of Géricault or by Triquetti and his magnificent bust of the Duke of Orleans. Moreover, the portrait here is part of a composition that blends romanticism and patriotism, the female figure embracing the famous deceased symbolizing a grateful and recollected France. We were unable to identify the author of this touching sketch despite the presence of a monogram. However, we owe the sculptor Adam- Salomon (1818-1881) a group entitled Lamartine veillé par le Génie des méditations, reproduced in the Journal illustré of November 11, 1875; the group, now unlocated, presents a composition and an idea very close to our terracotta. Related bibliography: Antoinette Lenormand-Romain, Mémoire de marbre, La sculpture funéraire en France 1804-1914, Agence culturelle de Paris, 1995. Pages 229, 230, 231.
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