A French Biscuit Porcelain Bust of François-Marie Arouet, Called Voltaire

1766-1773

after a model by Jean Houdon, with incised script monogram JB at the rear truncation for Bachelier; en déshabille wearing a jacket, an open-necked lace-edged shirt and no wig, his head to the left, truncated at the shoulders and on waisted circular socle.
Height 7 1/4 inches.

This lot is located in Chicago.

Provenance:

Dragesco-Cramoisan, Paris, no. 1229, 18 September 1996 (with copy of invoice)

Note:

Another example of the present model, also acquired from Dragesco-Cramoisan, along with its pendant, a portrait of the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, are in the collection of The British Museum (1988,0701.2 and 1988,0701.1, respectively), both socles ormolu enrichments. The sculptor Jean Claude François Rosset was traditionally assigned authorship of the informal likeness of the playwright and philosophe. However, there is no basis for the attribution in the factory records. Jean-Jacques Caffieri has also been posited as a potential source (see Emile Bourgeois, Le Biscuit de Sèvres au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1909, Vol. I, pp. 91-92).

According to the factory inventory of 1 January 1770 (SCS, Archives de Sèvres, I 7), the bust of Voltaire and that of Rameau each sold for 60 livres. Subsequent inventories show the price coming down. See Aileen Dawson, A Catalogue of French Porcelain in the British Museum, London, 1994, no. 150, pp. 185-186 for a detailed discussion of the model, its pair, and what details the factory records do reveal of the model’s history and commercial success. The museum’s website also provides a comprehensive discussion (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1988-0701-2).

At Sèvres, incised control marks, generally the initials of the head of the sculpture studio, were added to finished biscuit sculpture as a mark of approval and quality control. They help date the piece, as neither an incised nor a painted interlaced Ls mark with a date letter was ever used on sculpture.

Jean-Jacques Bachelier served twice as head of the sculpture studio at Vincennes/Sèvres—from 1751-1757 and again from 1766-1773, taking over from Etienne-Maurice Falconet when he went to Russia.

In overall good, stable, attractive condition. Some dirt and dust to recesses. Negligible fritting to the edge of the lace on his shirt, one area of which is a slightly larger flake chip. A very small flat flake on back of base rim of socle. Additional images available upon request.

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Property from the Fred and Kay Krehbiel Collection, Part I

A French Biscuit Porcelain Bust of François-Marie Arouet, Called Voltaire

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