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A very fine pair of Louis XVI gilt and patinated bronze and white marble figural candelabra attributed to Louis-Félix de Larue after a design by the celebrated sculptor Clodion, one with a naked Bacchic putto wearing a crown of grapes and vines, seated upon a rustic plinth, the other with a naked satyr putto with cloven feet wearing a garland of ivy across his chest and a goat skin around his loins and standing beside a tree stump, both holding in each hand a gilded spiral fluted cornucopia candle branch with grapes and vine leaf socket, each upon a gilt bronze mounted circular fluted white marble plinth with gilded laurel band on a square white marble base
Paris, date circa 1780
Height 47.5 cm. each.
Literature: Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 210, colour plate XXVIII, illustrating a candelabrum of 1780 in the State Rooms at the Residenz, Munich by Louis Félix de Larue (b. 1720 or 1731 d. 1765 or 1777) after a design by Claude Michel Clodion (1738–1814) which is identical to one of the present pair portraying the young Bacchus.
These candelabra relate closely to a pair made circa 1780 by the Parisian bronzier Louis Félix de Larue after a model by Clodion. Of particular note Clodion’s terracotta model was almost identical to one of the present figurines in that his putto had satyr legs and feet, while Larue’s model showed the figure as a young Bacchus with human limbs (as discussed in Anne L Poulet and Guilhem Scherf, “Clodion 1738-1814”, exhibition catalogue, 1992, pp. 136-149). There is an identical pair of candelabra without the lower marble plinth and base in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The models proved so popular that the figures were often copied a century later. For instance the Parisian firm Leblanc & Barbedienne reproduced a copy of the young satyr candelabra in their 1890 illustrated catalogue, while a decade earlier in 1880 another Parisian firm Eugène Bagues published illustrations of similar but standing Bacchic putti candelabra, (examples of which are in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and reproduced in Ottomeyer and Pröschel, ibid. p. 422, pls. 6.3.3 and 6.3.1 respectively).
Claude Michel, known as Clodion was born in Nancy to a family of well-known sculptors. During his youth he went to Paris to work with his uncle, Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, and subsequently with Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. After winning the Prix de Rome in 1759, Clodion spent about ten years in Italy studying Roman antiquities, Roman Baroque sculpture and the art of his contemporaries, from Giovanni Battista Piranesi to Johan Tobias Sergel. While still a student at the French Academy in Rome, his prodigious talents and his special aptitude for small terracottas attracted an illustrious clientele, including Catherine the Great. On his return to Paris in 1771, Clodion’s successes multiplied. He received major commissions for public and church monuments and produced countless models for vases, bas-reliefs, clocks, and other decorative projects. Examples of his oeuvre can be found among many important collections in the world including the museums of Berlin, Cherbourg, Dieppe, Montpellier, Gallery Roumianzeff Moscow, Nantes, Orléans and the gardens of Château Versailles.
Louis-Félix de Larue, who was born in Paris, where he also died, was the younger brother of the painter Philibert Benoît de Larue (1718-80). Like Clodion, Louis-Félix studied under Lambert-Sigisbert Adam and then in addition to being a sculptor worked as a designer, watercolourist and engraver. In 1750 he won the Prix de Rome and obtained a position to study sculpture at the Académie de Rome in September 1752. He was then subsequently appointed a professor at theAcadémie Saint-Luc in 1760, where he also exhibited his work.
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