Lot n° 58
Estimation :
20000 - 25000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 15 456EUR
Philippe-Laurent ROLAND (1746-1816) - Lot 58
Philippe-Laurent ROLAND (1746-1816)
Etienne Charles Loménie de Brienne, Minister of Finance (Paris, 1727-Sens, 1794)
Terracotta bust, vent hole on top of skull.
Circa 1791.
H: 62 cm on a wooden pedestal painted in imitation of marble H: 12.5 cm
Related literature:
-M. Quatremère de Quincy, "Notice historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de M. Roland sculpteur, lue à la séance publique de l'Académie royale des Beaux-Arts du 2 octobre 1819", in: Recueil de notices historiques lues dans les séances publiques de l'Académie royale des Beaux-arts à l'Institut, Paris, 1834 ;
-Joseph Perrin, Le cardinal Loménie de Brienne, archevêque de Sens. Ses dernières années. Episodes de la révolution, Sens, 1896;
-James David Draper, "Pajou and Roland", in: Augustin Pajou et ses contemporains, Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre, Paris, 1999, pp. 537-558.
This terracotta bust dates from the last third of the 17th century, when Augustin Pajou established himself as the leading French portrait painter. Philippe-Laurent Roland, sixteen years younger than Pajou, followed in the footsteps of his illustrious teacher and main supporter. After a five-year stay in Italy,
Roland obtained numerous official commissions and established a solid career as a portraitist. Drawing on Pajou's teachings, he not only mastered his likenesses, but also the art of expressing the character and spirit of his models.
This bust, which highlights the elegance and personality of Finance Minister Etienne Charles Loménie de
Brienne is representative of 18th-century French taste for refined portraiture, with its emphasis on character study and spirituality.
"Ecclesiastical egoism in all its vivacity and the harshness of avarice combined in the highest degree with that of ambition", "he was by turns a philosopher, an architect...and always intriguing, but he was no bishop", writes Abbé Caire sarcastically about the famous Loménie de Brienne.
Admired by Marie-Antoinette, the sovereign awarded him the blue cordon of the Order of the Holy Spirit, which he received on February 2, 1782, the same cordon he wears on the portrait of Roland. Soberly dressed in a frock coat with a knotted tie, only the blue cordon of the Holy Spirit on his chest underlines his high nobility, and, apart from the type of wig worn by ecclesiastics, nothing at first glance suggests that this is the portrait of a bishop.
At the Salons, the public's attention was particularly drawn to the many portraits on display. Roland regularly exhibited busts. Our portrait, with its confident, delicate and sophisticated modelling, is very close to Roland's well-known and published portraits. If the eye is first drawn to the refinement of the costume, the intelligent, somewhat dreamy expression of the face, subtly rendered by the artist, captures the attention. This verism in the transcription of the model's features, combined with a form of respect and honesty not devoid of stagecraft, is a constant in Roland's portraits.
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