Edmé BOUCHARDON
Chaumont sur Bassigny, 1698 – Paris, 1762
Nymph and satyr
Red chalk 345 x 445 mm – 13 9/16 x 17 1/2 in.
Annotated Bouchardon bottom left.
Annotated on the back in ink from ancient writing N 62. Annotated in more recent writing, in pencil, lower left N°804 /2500 Bouchardon /August 1924. Annotated at the top, in pencil, 5 1 – 4 1. ½ uni 1429.
Fleur de lys watermark in a circle topped with an A.
Provenance: Sale Thierry de Maigret, Paris, from March 30, 2012, lot n°86
Born in 1698, son of a sculptor architect, Edmé Bouchardon trained at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris before going to Rome in 1723. He studied there at the French Academy for nine years before being recalled to Paris by Louis XV. Throughout his career, he was recognized both as a great sculptor, even as the first of the 18th century ahead of Coustou, Houdon and Pigalle, and as a remarkable draughtman, celebrated in particular for The Crees of Paris. This drawing illustrates a menade or bacchante sitting on a rock, leaning back to give a kiss to a satyr who embraces it. At his feet is placed the thyrsus, a sort of scepter topped with an artichoke, used in festivities and ceremonies in honor of Bacchus, god of wine and fertility. Does this motif take or be inspired by an ancient sculpture or relief? The filigree of the sheet is the mark of an Italian papermaker which could correspond to the artist’s early works when he was a resident of Rome between 1723 and 1732 and drew from antiquity.
Condition report – some spots on the entire sheet and small patch on the nymph’s left knee.
