- 158
Louis-Edmond Laforesterie
bidding is closed
Description
Louis-Edmond Laforesterie
French, 1837-1894
la vigne et l'ormeau (a bacchante)
signed and dated: ED LAFORESTERIE 1880
white marble
200 cm., 78 3/4 in.
Laforesterie was born in Port-au-Prince, the Republic of Haiti, in 1837. He became disenchanted by the meagre commissions and encouragement he received there, especially under President Fabre Geffrard, who had overthrown Emperor Faustin I in 1859 and ruled until 1867. He therefore returned to Paris, where he had earlier received his training under Francois Jouffroy and Charles-Auguste LeBourg, remaining there until his death. From his studio at Boulevard des Batignolles 21, Laforesterie exhibited at the annual Salons from 1867 until 1883, displaying portrait busts, genre statues and portrait medallions.
In 1875 Laforesterie exhibited the first of his figurative marble groups, a work entitled La Reverie (no.3180), versions of which were purchased by both the French state (for 9000 francs: musee de la Chartreuse, Douai, inv.828) and the Haitian government (National Palace, destroyed 1912?). The following year he exhibited a plaster figure of a bacchic youth entitled Le vin nouveau (no.3380). This sculpture, known from an illustration in Le Monde Illustre (24th March 1877, p.188), was no doubt the precursor and possible pendant to the present work, for the contraposto and bacchic theme perfectly complement one another. The critic T. Vernon described how it was impossible to pass this sculpture without stopping to examine it more closely.
The present marble sculpture of La vigne et l'ormeau, possibly Laforesterie's premier chef d'oeuvre, can be identified by its matching date and dimensions to that exhibited at the Salon of 1880 (no.6439). He had exhibited the plaster version the year before (no.5130).
In Haiti, only a bust of Toussaint Louverture (National Palace, Port-au-Prince), the celebrated ex-slave and governor-general of Haiti prior to its independence in 1804, and some portraits of Laforesterie's relatives, survive. The bust of Toussaint was exhibited in bronze at the 1882 Salon (no.4523). Laforesterie is also known to have designed some Haitian stamps and coinage (known as the gourde), which were printed and minted in Paris between 1880 and 1882. The coins were executed in collaboration with Oscar Roty. Laforesterie was no doubt approved for this commission by his influential relative, Etienne-Charles Laforesterie (1832-1897), the founder of the Haitian National Bank who held the important position of ministre haitien des Finances and later Haitian Minister in Paris. It was he who negotiated in Paris the resolution of Haiti's debt to France on behalf of President Salomon. Louis-Edmond's brother, Leon, was the engineer that built the old National Palace that blew up in 1912 (q.v.), possibly destroying his brother's sculpture, La Reverie.
We are grateful to Gilles Hudicourt for information concerning this lot.
Related literature:
R. Heinl, Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1995, University Press of America, 1996; E. I. Christensen, The Art of Haiti, Cranbury NJ, 1975; J. Robinson, A History of the Haitian Popular Art Movement from 1944 to 1972, University Microfilms International, Michigan, 1983; L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, vol.3, London, 1907, p.267; musees du Nord de la France, De Carpeaux a Matisse, exhibition catalogue, Lille, 1982, p.336; T. Vernon, De l'art et des artistes de mon temps - Le Salon de 1875, Paris, 1875.
French, 1837-1894
la vigne et l'ormeau (a bacchante)
signed and dated: ED LAFORESTERIE 1880
white marble
200 cm., 78 3/4 in.
Laforesterie was born in Port-au-Prince, the Republic of Haiti, in 1837. He became disenchanted by the meagre commissions and encouragement he received there, especially under President Fabre Geffrard, who had overthrown Emperor Faustin I in 1859 and ruled until 1867. He therefore returned to Paris, where he had earlier received his training under Francois Jouffroy and Charles-Auguste LeBourg, remaining there until his death. From his studio at Boulevard des Batignolles 21, Laforesterie exhibited at the annual Salons from 1867 until 1883, displaying portrait busts, genre statues and portrait medallions.
In 1875 Laforesterie exhibited the first of his figurative marble groups, a work entitled La Reverie (no.3180), versions of which were purchased by both the French state (for 9000 francs: musee de la Chartreuse, Douai, inv.828) and the Haitian government (National Palace, destroyed 1912?). The following year he exhibited a plaster figure of a bacchic youth entitled Le vin nouveau (no.3380). This sculpture, known from an illustration in Le Monde Illustre (24th March 1877, p.188), was no doubt the precursor and possible pendant to the present work, for the contraposto and bacchic theme perfectly complement one another. The critic T. Vernon described how it was impossible to pass this sculpture without stopping to examine it more closely.
The present marble sculpture of La vigne et l'ormeau, possibly Laforesterie's premier chef d'oeuvre, can be identified by its matching date and dimensions to that exhibited at the Salon of 1880 (no.6439). He had exhibited the plaster version the year before (no.5130).
In Haiti, only a bust of Toussaint Louverture (National Palace, Port-au-Prince), the celebrated ex-slave and governor-general of Haiti prior to its independence in 1804, and some portraits of Laforesterie's relatives, survive. The bust of Toussaint was exhibited in bronze at the 1882 Salon (no.4523). Laforesterie is also known to have designed some Haitian stamps and coinage (known as the gourde), which were printed and minted in Paris between 1880 and 1882. The coins were executed in collaboration with Oscar Roty. Laforesterie was no doubt approved for this commission by his influential relative, Etienne-Charles Laforesterie (1832-1897), the founder of the Haitian National Bank who held the important position of ministre haitien des Finances and later Haitian Minister in Paris. It was he who negotiated in Paris the resolution of Haiti's debt to France on behalf of President Salomon. Louis-Edmond's brother, Leon, was the engineer that built the old National Palace that blew up in 1912 (q.v.), possibly destroying his brother's sculpture, La Reverie.
We are grateful to Gilles Hudicourt for information concerning this lot.
Related literature:
R. Heinl, Written in Blood: The Story of the Haitian People 1492-1995, University Press of America, 1996; E. I. Christensen, The Art of Haiti, Cranbury NJ, 1975; J. Robinson, A History of the Haitian Popular Art Movement from 1944 to 1972, University Microfilms International, Michigan, 1983; L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, vol.3, London, 1907, p.267; musees du Nord de la France, De Carpeaux a Matisse, exhibition catalogue, Lille, 1982, p.336; T. Vernon, De l'art et des artistes de mon temps - Le Salon de 1875, Paris, 1875.