Franco-Flemish, 18th century

Heim Gallery, London

Standard surface abrasions. Minor chipping. Restorations including nose, areas of collar. Some areas of shoulders and back have been consolidated. Surface applied with pigment. Stable and decorative.
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RELATED LITERATURE

Devigne 1928; Lennep 1992, pp.227-233

It has been suggested that the present bust depicts Jean-Dominique Geude who came from a Belgian family of lawyers, born in Assche, 29th Sept 1743. A bust of Geude by Gilles-Lambert Godecharle is mentioned in Devigne (op.cit.) , dating circa 1781-1782. There is sense of immediacy apparent in this portrait, underscored by the lively treatment of the eyes, a characteristic also evident in Godecharle's portrait busts (see Lennep 1992, op.cit.). Godecharle also seems to have preferred plaster to terracotta.

Gilles-Lambert Godecharle was the most gifted of Laurent Delvaux's students. He was accepted by the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture and subsequently worked with the most prominent French and Netherlandish sculptors of the 18^th century including Houdon, Pigalle and the Antwerp sculptor Tassaert (with whom he worked for Frederick the Great in Berlin). His most important independent commission in Brussels was the program of decorative sculpture for the Parc and Place Royale, commissioned by Charles de Lorraine and begun in 1780. In 1781, the year this bust may have been made, Godecharle gained an important public commission for the pediment of the Palais de la Nation which brought him great recognition. He was quickly requested to work on the façade and interior decoration of the Palais de Laeken by the Arch Duchess Marie-Christine in which he depicted subjects like the Months and various mythological scenes and figures. A large number of busts of important men by Godecharle are preserved in the Musées royaux des beaux-arts, Brussels.