Bulletin 24, 1974

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A Clodian statuette in The National Gallery of Canada

by Terence Hodgkinson

Pages  1  |  2  

Notes

1 Wend Graf Kalnein and M. Levey, Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France (Harmondsworth: Pelican History of Art, 1972), p. 159. This is the best modern account of Clodion. The main biographical facts were first established by H. Thirion, Les Adam et Clodion (Paris, 1885), and by J. J. Guiffrey in three articles in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. VIII ( 1892 ), p. 478, and vol. IX (1893), pp. 164, 392.

2 Acquired in 1973 from Wildenstein & Co., New York, The inventory number 18289 is painted in black under the circular base. Sold by Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 30 May 1951 (Lot 65). Probably identical with a statuette mentioned by Thirion (op. cit., p. 405) as dated 1779, the third digit being perhaps a misprint: "1858. - Vente anonyme. CLODION. Une terre cuite de Clodion: Bacchante debout, tenant dans ses bras Bacchus enfant; près d'elle est un trépied orné de têtes de béliers. Cette charmante statuette est signée et datée de 1779. Prix: 1,305 francs." This information is repeated by S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-huitième siècle, Vol. II (Paris, 1911), p. 153. The porphyry base, with bronze mounts, which formerly supported the statuette, appears to date from the nineteenth century.

3 John Flaxman's marble group The Fury of Athmas, executed in Rome, now the property of the National Trust, Ickworth, Suffolk, is illustrated by M. Whinney, Sculpture in Britain (1530 -1830) (Harmondsworth: Pelican History of Art, 1964), plate 144A.

4 Annales du Musée et de l'école moderne des Beaux-Arts, Recueil de Gravures....Rédigé par C. P. Landon, Vol. I (Paris, 1801), p. 99, plate 48, lettered "Clodion inv. Normand Sculp."

5 Reproduced Philadelphia Museum Bulletin vol. xxxv, no.189 (November 1939), n. p.

6 S. Rubinstein-Bloch, Collection of George and Florence Blumenthal, New York, Vol. v (Paris, 1930), plate LIX. Sold by Sotheby & Co., London, II December 1970, Lot 32, repr.

7 Galerie Cailleux, Autour du Néoclassicisme (exhibition catalogue) (Paris, 1973), no.60.

8 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture (Washington, D. C., 1965), p. 149, no. A-145. See also: S. Rubinstein-Bloch, op. cit., pl. IX.

9 Frick Collection, New York, An Illustrated Catalogue, Vol. IV (Sculpture) (New York, 1970), p. 102. See also: T. Hodgkinson, "Houdon and Clodion: Masters of Elegance," Apollo Magazine, vol. x cm, no.111 (1971), p. 394.

10 Formerly in the Alfred de Rothschild and Edmund de Rothschild collections. See C. Davis, A Description of the Works of Art Forming the Collection of Alfred de Rothschild, Vol. II (London, 1884), fig. 129.

11 Formerly Marius Palme collection, sold by Galerie Georges Petit, 15 May 1929, Lot 285, repr.

12 Council of Europe, The Age of Neo-classicism (exhibition catalogue) (London, 1972), p. 228, cat. no. 351.

13 M. Bieber, The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age (New York, 1955), fig. 569.

14 For the literature of the Athénienne see Council of Europe, op. cit., p. 871, cat. no.1829.

15 Inscribed "CLODION in Roma 1768." Formerly in the Strogonoff Collection. Sold by Parke Bemet Galleries, New York, 14 November 1968 (Lot 135; one of a pair). Wrongly described in the catalogue as dated 1763.

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