The sad fate of the little Dauphin Louis-Charles has long been the subject of obsessional interest. It would be somehow consoling to have a secure likeness of the little boy. After 1815, many moving portrait busts were produced, often gaining wide circulation as Sèvres porcelain models. Several sculptors made a speciality of them, notably Louis-Pierre Deseine (1749-1822) who executed the only known official bust in 1790.
Here are notes on some of the more notable examples.
First Bust by Deseine
The bust created by Louis-Pierre Deseine in 1790 is the only one for which the Dauphin is known to have posed. It is mentioned by Deseine in a letter to the comte d'Angiviller, dated 31st August 1790. The sculptor had given a plaster copy of his bust of Louis XVI to the duc de Villecaise, who in return arranged sittings with the dauphin: "Some time afterwards, M. le duc de Villecaise, pleased by the gift of a plaster bust of the king, offered me his help; I told him that I desired to create the bust of Mgr the Dauphin, in order to make a marble to offer to the Queen". According to the Révolutions de Paris, Madame de Tourzel introduced the sculptor into the presence of the dauphin and the bust was "a perfect likeness". Deseine arranged for it to be taken to d'Angiviller's hôtel so that he could see it.
Françoise Reynaud, "Un buste de Louis XVI par Louis-Pierre Deseine", Bulletin du Musée Carnavalet, vol.2, 1978. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=J1rrAAAAMAA
It would seem that the original marble bust, given to Marie-Antoinette at the Tuileries, miraculously survived. Today it is in on display in the Queen's bedchamber in the Palace of Versailles :
 |
| https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/01-007130-2C6NU0GTF920.html |
Notice in the Versailles collections database:
MV6305
H.54 cm x W 31cm x D 22.4 cm
Marble
Louis-Pierre Deseine, Bust of Louis-Charles of France, Duke of Normandy, then Dauphin, then Louis XVII (1785-1795)
Bought by the ministère de la Maison du Roi on 29th December 1817 from M. Delarne-Duparc. Sent to Versailles in 1834. Now in the bedchamber of Marie-Antoinette.
http://collections.chateauversailles.fr/#306364b8-01f0-4fd7-b45b-4dfdc59af2c7
The bust is signed "Deseine/sculp. du roi/1790".
Sculptures (of Louis XVII) are rare. Only one can be judged securely as original, the bust by Deseine, which dates from the summer of 1790. An example of this bust in marble is to be found in the Museum at Versailles. It was made for the Queen; the nose and chin were broken "by the vandals of 10th August". An inscription tells us that it was "found and restored by the young Delaroy-Delorme, of Niort." It was included in the Salon of 1791. A certain M. Delarue-Duparc sold it, in 1817 to the Louvre for the sum of 2,400 francs. It was moved to Fontainebleau in 1826, returned to the Louvre in 1832, then transferred to Versailles when the museum was established there. It was twenty or twenty-two years before it was brought out of storage
François Laurentie, L'iconographie de Louis XVII, p.8:
See also: Plate 25 from Laurentie's biography of Louis XVII, reproduced on the Musée Louis XVII website.
 |
| The inscription on the base of the bust reads: "Ce buste, horriblement mutilé par les vandales du 10 août, a été trouvé et restauré par les soins du jeune Delaroy-Delorme de Niort (Deux Sèvres)" https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/01-007140-2C6NU0GTFKBA.html |
According to a tradition reported by the last owner, Delaroy-Duparc, who sold it to Louis XVIII, the bust was fished out of a stream, bloodstained and broken on 11th August by a cobbler, who kept it until 1816, using it to serve as an anvil ("une enclume")
La Révolution française et l'Europe, 1789-1799 [1989 Exhibition catalogue]
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R28jAQAAIAAJ
In the 19th century the Delaroy-Delorme family owned property in Sciecq, five kilometres outside Niort. Jean-François Delaroy-Delorme also rescued the head of a statue of Richelieu in 1840.
https://www.latribunedelart.com/un-buste-de-marbre-de-richelieu-a-retrouver
It would seem the restoration work, and possibly the inscription, date from 1896:
A few months ago, as some workmen were making room for some improvements at the palace of Versailles, they discovered the defaced bust of a child. The nose, mouth and chin broken, undoubtedly by the vandals of the French revolution. After many researches by scientific people, Monsieur de Nolhac, the custodian of the Musée de Versailles...discovered, beyond doubt, that it was no less than the Dauphin of France, or Louis XVII, and the work of one of the most distinguished French sculptors of the time, Deseine.
The French government had the mutilated parts restored and it is now in the above named museum.
Scientific American, 11th July 1896. [Image available from Alamy stock photos].
A second example of the same bust, in bronzed plaster, was acquired by the Musée de la Révolution française in Vizille in 1985. This copy is considered to have been one of several made by Deseine from his original mould during the Restoration, one of which was exhibited in the Salon of 1814 with the bust of Louis XVI. The Vizille bust is probably the one described both by Deseine's biographer Georges Le Chatelier and by François Laurentie as belonging to the Monnier family. It therefore boasts secure provenance from Deseine's descendants.
 |
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bust_of_Louis_Charles_Dauphin_of_France-Louis_Pierre_Deseine-IMG_2274.jpg |
Notice from the Vizille website:
Département de l'Isère, Musée de la Révolution française
1985.403,
H 50cm x W 30cm xD 17cm
Varnished plaster
Louis-Pierre Deseine, Bust of the Dauphin, son of Louis XVI
The Dauphin has long hair, rounded frilly collar with two rows of lace; on his chest is the ribbon and dove medallion of the Saint-Esprit.
Inscribed on the right side: "Fait d'Après Nature / En 1790 Par DeSeine / Sculp.du Roi"
https://collections.isere.fr/fr/museum/document/le-dauphin-fils-de-louis-xvi/33c7ed34-fb62-4214-8a5e-81528e85b986
Text of the Museum label:
Louis-Pierre Deseine (1749-1822)
The Dauphin (1785-1795), son of Louis XVI
1790-1814
Plaster, with pewter varnish. Acquired in 1985.
Inv. MRF 1985-403
"In 1790 Deseine obtained permission to have the Dauphin pose for him and to make a bust of the heir to the throne, intended to be an official portrait. The evolution of the political situation prevented its distribution. The bust was recast with the Restoration of 1814. Deseine, who had preserved the mould, made several copies, one of which he presented to the duchesse d'Angoulême. Another was exhibited at the salon. The present bust belongs to this series."
Laurentie describes two busts from Deseine's workshop:
To be preferred [to the marble in Versailles] are two plasters, still extant, which come from the actual workshop of Deseine and have the good fortune not to have been "restored". One of them is to be found in Paris and belongs to M. Monnier; the other is in Normandy and belongs to M. de Baudicour. The former is less finished and appears to be a preliminary version. "Made from life in 1790, by De Seine, sculptor to the King". It is to be regretted that, forty years ago, they were bronzed in silver and chocolate. They are without doubt documentary evidence of the first order. ( L'iconographie, p.8)
In a subsequent note Laurentie observes that the little boy in the bust has "a short, wrinkled neck, indistinct brows, a high skull, strong chin and prominent cheeks".
His biography includes two photographs of the bust belonging to Laurent Monnier (Plates 2 and 3). The Musée Louis XVII website reproduces these, together with three other views taken from a 1964 book by Alain Decaux. This is fairly evidently the Vizille bust.
Here is the same bust, viewed by George Le Chatelier in the early years of the last century:
L'Ami des Monuments et Arts Parisiens, vol.20 (1907)
https://archive.org/details/lamidesmonuments20soci/page/210
The Vizille bust featured in an exhibition of images of Louis XVII at the museum in 2018:
https://issuu.com/isere-culture/docs/saison_mrf_2018-pap-hd
This print shows a profile sketch by Deseine, presumably a preliminary study or a separate work contemporary with the sculpture (Versailles collections)
https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/88-001765-01-2C6NU0HS7WFJ.html
A second bust attributed to Deseine
This terracotta bust, again said to be by Deseine, is also in the collections at Versailles. There are no details of further documentation or provenance on the internet, apart from the names of its American donors. The date of "about 1790" is probably based only on the apparent age of the sitter. It is more natural to assume that this is a later model - the more informal costume echoes early 19th-century taste.
Versailles, châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
MV8523
H 42.5cm, terracotta
Louis-Pierre Deseine, Louis-Charles de France, Dauphin in 1789
https://www.photo.rmn.fr/archive/14-527026-2C6NU0AL0VF3A.html
The gift of Mrs Etienne Coche de la Ferté and Mr Jacques Blumenthal in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Blumenthal. In the Cabinet de la Méridienne Versailles (see below).
Another example, this time in plaster, was auctioned in the Alain Bancel collection in 2003. The sale catalogue identified it only as an anonymous bust of Louis XVII. [PIASA Sale of 21 May 2003, lot 221]
 |
| Busts of Louis XVII collected by Alain Bancel, auctioned in May 2003 https://piasa.auction.fr/_fr/lot/quot-louis-xvii-quot-buste-en-platre-sur-piedouche-576438#.XiRrZ8j7SM8 |
Last year the Bancel bust was resold for a substantial 4,500 € (28 June 2019 Drouot, Collection Amaury Taittinger, lot 15). This time it was attributed to Deseine, but, unfortunately, only by reference to the Versailles bust.
https://www.thierrydemaigret.com/lot/98673/10396856
Getty Images has a photograph of the same model described as "by Houdon":
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/buste-du-dauphin-de-france-louis-xvii-r%C3%A9alis%C3%A9-par-jean-news-photo/840448980
A third bust after Deseine
Laurentie also includes this very similar design by Deseine, which was the model for a Sèvres figure:Plate no.142 from Louis XVII (1913) [Musée Louis XVII website]:
Plaster original from the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres used as the model for a biscuit porcelain bust. Height 48 cm. The date of entry in the Sèvres registers is 1820.
See L'iconographie p.9: Other works which date from the Restoration are of less interest; these include the bust by Brachard and a second bust by Deseine.
There are several examples on the internet of Sèvres porcelain copies (See for example Alain Bancel, lot 218 ill. above).
A plaster copy of the bust was acquired by Henry Walters in 1910 and is now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore:
Disconcertingly, the Walters Museum attributes the work to a completely different sculptor, Philippe-Laurent Roland (1746-1816). Roland undoubtedly supplied models for Sèvres in the early years of the 19th century. The Walters catalogue also identifies the bust as made "after a drawing made by Belanger in the Temple (1794 (?)" - on which see below.
https://art.thewalters.org/detail/23721/bust-of-louis-xvii/
Compare also:
Laurentie Plate 65. Medallion in Sèvres porcelain, by the modeller Branchard, dated 1814.
http://musee.louis.xvii.online.fr/res5.htm
A bust based on the drawing of François-Joseph Bélanger
Laurentie, Louis XVII (1913) Plate 141: Bust of Louis XVII in Sèvres biscuit porcelain
One of the commissioners of the Commune, Bellanger or Bélanger, was said to have sketched Louis-Charles just before his death and commissioned a bust from his drawing. The original picture has not been found. Laurentie tentatively identified the sculpture with an unsigned Sèvres model:
 |
| Laurentie, Louis XVII, vol. 1 plate 141 http://musee.louis.xvii.online.fr/sculptures.htm |
Here is what Eckard, a very precise historian, says: "The august invalid (Louis XVII) had been willing, as a rare exception, to enter into conversation with M. Bellanger, commissaire de service, on 31st of that same month of May (1795). The latter had managed to trace in pencil in his album the profile of the Infant-King. It was based on this profile sketch, and on what he remembered, that shortly afterwards he had the bust of Louis XVII made by M. Beaumont, sculptor, rue de l'Arcade. In 1814, he had the honour of presenting the bust in porcelain to his Majesty Louis XVIII and the royal family. M. Bélanger, dessinateur du Cabinet du Roi, occupied that post with the same prince when he was SAR Monsieur."
It is not known what happened to the drawing by Bellanger. It is not in Sèvres. An example of the bust can be found in the Musée Carnavalet. Another was given by Louis XVIII to François, baron Huë and belongs today to M. the baron Huë (Gontran), his great grandson. We illustrate the original plaster, which has several retouches of wax in the hair (Manufacture nationale de Sèvres)"
Laurentie, Louis XVII, vol. 2, p.19.
Eckard, Mémoires historiques sur Louis XVIII. 3rd edition (1818), p.283, nt
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6L5CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA283#v=onepage&q&f=false
See Laurentie, L'iconographie, p.9:
At Sèvres there is a plaster original, retouched with wax in the hair, which can probably be identified as the bust by Beaumont, executed in marble during the Directory and presented to Louis XVIII in 1814. Beaumont had used the profile that the architect Bellanger had sketched in the Temple, 31st May 1795, only eight days before the child died. Even if the provenance was totally secure, however, it does not hold the interest of an image taken directly from nature.
Another profile in biscuit ware belonged to Mme de Tourzel, and is owned today by the marquis de Villefrance. This too seems to have been inspired by the profile of Bellanger.
The artist and landscape designer François-Joseph Bélanger (Bellanger) (1744-1818) was the former director of the Menus plaisirs and architect to the comte d'Artois. In 1795 Bélanger was indeed one of the Commissioners of the Paris Commune at the Temple prison and attended the prisoner on the date in question, though the accuracy of his account of the occasion has been disputed. The sculptor Beaumont, of the rue de l'Arcade, who is mentioned, is not otherwise known.
Other early 19th-century busts
Laurentie, plate 143. A bust of Louis XVII in Sèvres porcelain by Alexandre Brachard (1775–1843). Original plaster belonging to the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres.
H.27cm, signed "A. B(rachard)" and dated "6 mars 21" 1821
Bust(s) attributed to Houdon
Other busts from the time of Louis XVI are highly dubious or definitely false. For example, the well-known little bust attributed to Houdon. Certain reproductions in biscuit ware go so far as to include a false Sèvres mark. A bust of Louis-Charles after Houdon was never made by Sèvres. Iconographie, p.8-9.
References
François Laurentie, L'iconographie de Louis XVII... (1913). Monograph version of an article published in Revue de l'art, 1913 - 25 pages
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5699139x/f13.item
"Louis XVII et la sculpture", Musée Louis XVII Michel Jaboulay
http://musee.louis.xvii.online.fr/sculptures.htm
"Louis-Pierre Deseine" article on Wikipedia.fr
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pierre_Deseine
http://godsandfoolishgrandeur.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-second-dauphin.html
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aqKTS8phN-0C&pg=PT119#v=onepage&q&f=false
No comments:
Post a Comment