François MARTIN known as Martin de Grenoble (1761- 1804) - Lot 214

François MARTIN known as Martin de Grenoble (1761- 1804) Plaster bust of Jacqueline Béatrix Gabrielle Stéphanie de Choiseul-Stainville, duchesse de Marmier (1782-1861). Plaster signed and dated François Martin / fecit 1788 on the back; resting on a fully molded pedestal. Height: 59 cm. Stéphanie-Jacqueline was the eldest daughter of Claude-Antoine-Gabriel de Choiseul (1760-1838), who became Duc de Choiseul-Stainville shortly after the death in 1785 of his adoptive father, the minister and head of Louis XV's government. She thus moved in the upper echelons of the capital's aristocracy on the eve of the Revolution. Martin de Grenoble produced her bust in 1788, when she was six years old. Martin de Grenoble began his training between the ages of 11 and 17 at the École de Dessin in Grenoble, before moving to Paris, where he began his career as a sculptor in earnest in 1779. Martin made a name for himself as a protraitise by producing busts of great men (historical figures, philosophers, writers, scientists), very much in vogue at the time. After Fénelon, it was Linné, but also Rousseau, Voltaire and many others in various sizes and materials to satisfy the clientele. He moved to Lyon in the mid-1790s and built up a clientele in bourgeois circles, competing with Chinard. He was one of the few sculptors to be highly committed to the revolutionary cause during the years 1789-94. Alain Chevalier, director of the Musée de la Révolution française in Vizille, has identified four Stéphanie-Jacqueline de Choiseul-Stainville busts signed and dated 1788. A plaster bust painted in imitation of terracotta, preserved at Ray-sur-Saône in the model's descendants, which may be a late print from a mold, probably based on the marble in the former Blumenthal collection. A plaster bust considered to be the original plaster from the former David Weil collection, but which has not been located. A photographic reproduction of a plaster cast, dated 1788, reproduced in the Maciet album in the Bibliothèque du Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Finally, a marble bust from the Hubert Guerrand-Hermés collection, Sotheby's December 14, 2023, lot 283 (€59,690 with fees). COMPARATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHIES : S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'École française du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1912, t. II, p. 115-118. Valérie Lavergne-Durey and Alain Chevalier, Musée de la Révolution française,Vizille, Exhibition from June 27 to October 27, 2014, Face à Face, Laneuville et Martin de Grenoble.