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242
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Jules Desbois (French, 1851 1935)
Mask of Death, c.
See original version (French)
242
-
Jules Desbois (French, 1851 1935)
Mask of Death, c.
See original version (French)
Estimate €5,000 - €8,000
Voluntary lot
Description
Jules Desbois (French, 1851 1935)
Mask of Death, c. 1903-1904
Glazed stoneware.
Made by Paul Jeanneney (1861-1920).
Height 26.5 Width 20 Depth 12 cm.
Provenance: former collection of Doctor Paul Henri Clergeau (1877-1941) in Varennes-Changy, Loiret.
Stoneware mask of death by Jules Desbois, circa 1903-1904.
Related works: Montreal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 2011.202; New Jersey, Zimmerli Art Museum, inv. 2001.0970; Parçay-Les-Pins, Musée Jules Desbois, inv. P.R. D. 001.2.3; Nevers, Musée de la faïence et des Beaux-arts, NF 1296; Paris, Galerie Nicolas Bourriaud, April 2026; Auxerre, Me. Lefranc, 9 Jan. 2026, no. 334.
Bibliography:
- Pierre Maillot, Raymond Huard, Jules Desbois, sculpteur (1851-1935), Paris, 2001 ;
- Charles Saunier, La sculpture aux Salons de 1893, in La Plume n°100, p. 278-279 ;
- Catalogue of the exhibition Masques de Carpeaux à Picasso, Paris, 2008, nos. 148 and 149, pages 37 and 241.
A collector and doctor for the poor, Dr Paul Clergeau was one of the leaders of the Montargis communist section in 1932, a tireless fighter to push back the limits of Life. This Mask of Death is the work of Jules Desbois, who first exhibited it in pewter at the 1893 Salon. It has sometimes been wrongly attributed to Rodin, who was working on his Balzac at the same time, and to Dubois, who worked with him from 1878 onwards at the Palais du Trocadéro. This mask is in fact a fragment of the work "Death and the Woodcutter", which had struck critics with its realism in 1890.
Our stoneware version was made by Paul Jeanneney (1861-1920), a friend of the sculptor Jean-Joseph Carriès. He set up his workshop at the Château de Saint-Amand en Puisaye in the Nièvre region. Some of these masks bear the signatures of the two artists, Desbois and Jeanneney, and are dated 1903 or 1904, with the reference to St Amand. That same year, 1903, Rodin wrote to the Beaux-arts administration: "Desbois is one of the greatest sculptors of his time", adding to his friends: "When I die, Desbois will be the greatest sculptor". This Masque de la mort, with its deformed features and brown slip, is a striking example of this.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Lot description modified on 05/11/2026 at 11:37 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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