A Late Louis XVI Blue-Enameled and Gilt-Bronze Nine-Light Chandelier, 1790

Possibly Collection de M.E. S*** , Paris Drouot, Arthur Slaes, 7-8 June 1878, lot 15;

Sotheby’s Monaco, Collection of Monsieur et Madame Henri Rabeau, 17-18 June 1989, lot 82;

Swiss Private Collection;

Sotheby's New York, 16 April 2024, lot 53;

Where acquired by the present collector.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Christian Baulez, 'Les imaginations de Dugourc' and 'les bronziers, Gouthière, Thomire et Rémond', Versailles, deux siècles d’histoire de l’art, 2007

There are no surviving drawings of the model of this chandelier, but the arabesque branches, floral buds, animal heads and treatment of the chains are unmistakably reminiscent of the work of the ornamental artist Jean-Demosthène Dugourc (1749-1825), who worked for younger brothers of King Louis XVI the Comte de Provence and the Comte d'Artois and also for the courts of Sweden, Russia and Spain.

His elegant, graphic style was adopted by many artists and can be seen, for example, on numerous gilt bronze candelabra typical of the reign of Louis XVI, with female terms, victories, foliate scrolls and putti on altars. A likely candidate for the maker of this chandelier is the bronzier François Rémond (c.1747-1812), who regularly executed work to Dugourc's designs and developed certain stylistic traits that recur frequently in his work, notably the twisted arms and rooster heads.

Another chandelier in a private collection has a similar design to the offered lot, of nine lights with scrolling arms, though its centre is made up of a sphere rather than an urn as on this model. Important chandeliers attributed to Rémond include one sold Daguerre, Hôtel Drouot, Paris 16 November 2012, lot 269, and another from the Wrightsman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum, New York [1972.242].