Bronze Sculpture of Grecian Woman with Lyre, "Meditative Sappho"

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Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger
Bronze Sculpture of Grecian Woman with Lyre, "Meditative Sappho"
1858

About the Item

A successful Romantic sculptor and painter, Auguste Clésinger studied with his father, the academic sculptor Georges-Philippe Clésinger. In 1832, father and son traveled to Rome where the younger Clésinger worked in the studio of the renowned Danish neo-classical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and also apprenticed with the architect Salvi. Clésinger developed a strong sense of confidence, and feeling his work to be superior to that of many of his colleagues, he preferred to be known as Auguste, a more befitting name for his grade of talent than Jean-Baptiste. After completing his studies in Rome, Clésinger journeyed to Besançon and Switzerland for a few years before settling in Paris in 1838. In Paris, he was a pupil of the famous sculptor David d’Angers. Clésinger then traveled to Switzerland and Florence, sending back works to exhibit in 1843. He made his Salon debut with a marble bust of Vicomte Jules de Valdahon. Clésinger returned to Paris two years later and established his own studio. He made an effort to cultivate friendships with the leading art journalists so that his Salon submissions would have certain success. By 1847, Clésinger’s strategy had worked; he had his first acclaim at the Salon with his popular and erotic work Woman Bitten by a Snake, a sensuous model he might easily have named Eurydice or Cleopatra but did not thus ensuring a scandal that brought him notoriety. The model for the marble was Clésinger’s former lover, Mme. Sabatier, a known courtier and “kept” mistress of a succession of notable men, including the sculptor himself. Ironically, that same year Clésinger married Salonge-Gabrielle Dudevant, the daughter of George Sand. The marriage, though it only lasted five years, brought him into the fashionable circles of the Second Empire, which resulted in a number of commissions. The following year his Reclining Bacchante won a First-Class medal at the Salon. With the establishment of the new French government, the sculptor executed a monumental bust of Liberté and a statue of Fraternité, the latter of which was erected on the Champ de Mars, May 14, 1848, the day of the festival of the Concorde. In 1848, Clésinger completed a bust of the painter Thomas Couture, a work that established the sculptor as a “masterly portraitist,” according to art historian H. W. Janson. “With its strongly turned head, its windblown hair and drapery, it has a Neo-Baroque élan truly astonishing for 1848, the year it was created.” Clésinger returned to Rome in 1856 after a state commissioned equestrian statue of François I was met with much criticism. In Rome, Clésinger created a number of marble pieces in a very neo-antique style and also produced a series of sculptures of Roman bulls, a subject that proved popular. Works were sent back to the Salon in Paris; eight marbles were exhibited in 1859 and six bronzes in 1861. He returned to Paris in 1864 and was promoted to an officer in the Legion of Honor, an organization in which he was a member since 1849. In 1867 Clésinger held his own exhibition on the Rue Royale in Paris, a self-promoting practice which was becoming more popular among Parisian artists. He followed up these shows with an annual public auction sale of his work. Théophile Gautier wrote catalog introductions for the sculptor. Clésinger also “repeated” earlier works by making minimal modifications and reissuing casts, elaborating on previous subjects. Clésinger continued to exhibit at the Salons until 1880. His last major project was uncompleted at his death in 1883; it was a Beaux-Arts administration commission of four equestrian portrait statues of Marceau, Kléber, Hoche and Garnet to decorate the entrance of the École Militaire. Auguste Clésinger’s sculptures were sensual and powerful. He composed mythological and allegorical compositions, equestrian statues, busts of personalities and artists, and animalier works (mainly bulls), earning him many distinctions and honors. Clésinger, as did other sculptors of his era, looked to antiquity and to the works of Michelangelo for inspiration. However, in his choice of subject, poses and materials, Clésinger was quite experimental and is recognized as one of the initiators of the Rococo Revival in 19th century French sculpture. MUSEUMS, COLLECTIONS AND PUBLIC SITES Musée d’Orsay, Paris (Femme picquée par un serpent; La jeunesse de Bacchus; La République; Nereide; Madame Sabatier en bacchante; La dame aux roses; Buste de George Sand; Combat des taureaux-romains, Hercule enfant étouffant les serpent de l’Envie) Musée du Petit-Palais de Paris (Femme picquée par un serpent) Musée George Sand et de la Vallée Noire, La Châtre (Diane; Main droite de George Sand; Tête de Nini Clésinger; Bacchante) Musée des Beaux-arts, Dole (Bacchanate couchée) Musée des Beaux-arts et d’archéologie, Besançon (Combat de taureaux romains, Neréide) Musée de Grenoble (Danseuse au tambourin, la Zingara) Musée Saint-Nazaire, Bourbon-Lancy (Marianne) Musée des Beaux-arts, Marseille (Combat de taureaux-romains) Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne (La melancholie) Musée Condé, Chantilly (Buste de femme à mi-corps) Musée des Beaux-arts et d’archéologie, Besançon (Buste du duc de Nemours; Le triomphe d’Ariane; Salomé; Le répos de Diane; Hérodiade) Musée départemental Pierre Corneille, Petit-Couronne (Mlle. Rachel dans le rôle de Phèdre) Musée de Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse (Bacchante) Musée des Beaux-arts, Bordeaux (Buste de la République) Musée municipal de Châlons-en-Champagne (Sappho (plâtre)) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Tête du Christ) Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University (Taureau romain) Speed Art Museum, Louisville (Taureau romain) Detroit Institute of Arts (La Zingara) Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Femme au tambourin; Hibou et crâne; Le peintre Thomas Couture; Satyre assis) Art Institute of Chicago (Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli) Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Bataille de taureaux-romains) Minneapolis Institute of Art (Bacchante et satyre) Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio (Ariane; Sapho) Cleveland Museum of Art (Tête de Christ; Bacchante; Ariane sur une panthère) Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Royal Museum of Fine Arts), Antwerp (Portrait of Mrs. De Rute, nee Maria Letitia Bonaparte-Wyse (buste)

Creator:
Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger (1814 - 1883)
Creation Year:
1858
Dimensions:
Height: 27 in (68.58 cm)Width: 8 in (20.32 cm)Depth: 8 in (20.32 cm)
Medium:
Bronze
Movement & Style:
Academic
Period:
Mid-19th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Washington, DC
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU123825071671

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