Claude Munier, Bust of Gentleman, 1780

About the Item

The terracotta bust, placed on top of a colored marble pedestal, depicts a male figure with his hair held back in a tail by a ribbon and is attired in a collarless tailcoat closed with frogs with applied tassels and embroidery along the edges, an undergarment with similar embroidery at the neck, and a lace tie. The sculptor signs himself on the back of the bust, giving his full name, and proclaiming himself "contois" i.e., a native of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, a region located in the 25th Department of Doubs located in the east of France, and also specifies his native country "Naisons." On the back, the author misspells both "contois" and "Naisons" instead of "comtois" and "Maisons." Through this information one can trace the place listed with Maisons-du-Bois-Lièvremont, a small village in Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Considering the little importance in the 18th century of the small village where he was born, this inscription should be interpreted as celebrating his origins, as he surely had to operate in a more prestigious center. The art-historical information about Claude Munier is equally mysterious. In an article published in "L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux" in 1908, Charles Oulmont (Mulhouse 1883 - Pontoise 1984), a writer and famous 18th-century French art collector whose works flowed by donation into several French museum institutions such as the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg, Mulhouse, and Besançon, asks about this sculptor, of whom he knows two terracotta busts: the first a "superbe buste de Voltaire" signed on the back "Munier fecit," and the second a portrait of a comedian, signed and dated on the base "Claude Munier 1780" (Charles Oulmont, L'Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux, March 30, 1908, Paris, pp. 445-446.) Thanks to this information we are able to reconstruct an early corpus of this artist, although these two works are still unknown and thus the terracotta portrait presented here turns out to be Munier's only known work to date. Considering the important studies in recent decades on 18th-century French sculpture, the lack of knowledge about this figure may be due both to his origin from a small village in eastern France and by taking into consideration adverse events that may have compromised his life, leading him to an untimely death. In support of this possibility, it may be noted that the bust of a comedian, traced by Oulmont, also bore the same date - 1780 - as ours, further demonstrating how his activity must perhaps have taken place in just a few years.

Dimensions:

Height: 30.71 in (78 cm)Width: 19.3 in (49 cm)Depth: 13.78 in (35 cm)

Style:

Other (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Terracotta

Place of Origin:

France

Period:

1780-1789

Date of Manufacture:

1700s