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Premium Auguste PRÉAULT (Paris, 1809 - 1879)
The poet André Chénier …
See original version (French)
Auguste PRÉAULT (Paris, 1809 - 1879)
The poet André Chénier …
See original version (French)
Lot no. 96
Description
Auguste PRÉAULT (Paris, 1809 - 1879)
The poet André Chénier (1762-1794): Preparatory model for the stone statue in the Louvre Museum
Red patinated plaster
Signed 'Préault' and titled 'ANDRE.CHENIER' on the base
Height : 41 cm
The poet André Chénier, plaster, red patina, signed, by A. Préault
H. 16.14 in.
Bibliography: related :
Isabelle Leroy-Jay, Sylvain Bellenger, Catherine Chevillot, Charles W. Millard, Auguste, Préault : sculpteur romantique : 1809-1879, cat. exp. Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 20 February-18 May 1997, Blois, Château de Blois, 20 June-28 September 1997, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 17 October 1997-11 January 1998, p.54, p.70, notice 120 p.198, p. 199, 248, 269.
Related works :
Auguste Préault, André Chénier, 1856-1857, stone statue, H. 300 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, Aile Henri II
Edouard Baldus, Chénier, statue d'Auguste Préault, décor du Palais du Louvre, Paris, between 1855 and 1857, albumen print from a glass negative, mounted on plate, 17.8 x 7.7 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, inv. PHO 1998 2 40 2
This preparatory model in patinated plaster of the poet André Chénier is a rare testimony to the history of the Palais du Louvre. It was made by Auguste Préault in the context of the major building project commissioned by Napoleon III and directed from 1854 onwards by the architect of the Louvre, Hector Lefuel.
Keen to take part in this prestigious project, and after several unsuccessful applications, Préault was finally entrusted in 1856 with one of the elements in this colossal programme of over three hundred sculptures for the new palace décor. The statue of André Chénier was completed in just five months, and Charles Bataille commented on its execution: ''Préault has almost made an academy, but a true academy, intelligent, luminous, internally enlightened'' (p.54 of Leroy-Jay's work).
Even before the statue of Chénier received official approval, Préault asked for a new commission and received approval for the creation of the two colossal groups of War and Peace, destined for the roof of the former Louvre overlooking the Place du Carrousel.
This commission marked the consecration of this major artist of the Romantic movement, whose temperament was nevertheless sulphurous and whose career had been erratic until then.
Préault was an avid reader of André Chénier, the political writer deeply involved in the Revolution, whose poetic and committed work prefigured the Romantic movement.
Here, the sculptor submits to an academic exercise that runs counter to his temperament. Eugène Noël wrote: "...he was made to sculpt an A. (Letter from Eugène Noël to Alfred Dumesnil dated 29 January 1857, held by the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, quoted on p.74 note 76).
The poet, dressed in Directoire period costume, holding a rolled-up piece of paper in his right hand, standing firmly on his two feet with his head slightly raised, seems to be declaiming verses from his famous "Jeune Tarentine". The facial features are not yet shaped.
Our sketch is incisive, and ultimately more animated than the final version, with its less natural attitude.
The final sculpture is part of the gallery of French celebrities decorating the balustrades on the terraces of the buildings in the 'Nouveau Louvre' between the Pavillon de Sully and the southern corner, Aile Henri II.
Auguste PRÉAULT (Paris, 1809 - 1879)
See original version (French)
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