François-Marie Poncet (1736-1797) French, 1782

possibly Jacques Imbert-Colomès, Lyon;
Maurice Fenaille, Paris;
and thence by descent;
sold by the heirs, Brissonneau et Daguerre, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Collection Maurice Fenaille, 7 June 2006, lot 187

Overall the condition of the marble is good. There is some wear and dirt consistent with age. There is some faint naturally occurring veining visible on the surface, including at the proper left shin, proper right thigh and hell and the base. The sculpture has faint reddish staining to the surface, mainly to the abdomen, legs, doves and the reverse. There is a small rust coloured stain to the cloud on the reverse. There are restored fissures to the index finger of the proper left hand and the proper left wing of the top dove. A small chip has been reattached on the left font corner of the base. There are a number of small nicks including to the proper left hip, proper left forearm, proper right thigh and feet. A few scratches are vsisble to the surface on the back and to the buttocks. There are some chips to the lower edge of the base, including a larger one to the reverse. The marble pedestal consists of five sections. There is dark veining to the marble consistent with material. It has a number of small chips along the edges, particularly along the top platform. There is some dirt to the crevices of the frieze and along the lower part.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'Divin Poncet ta Vénus est si belle,
De tant d'ésprit, ton Voltaire étincelle,
Que j'éntandais dire aujourd'hui :
On voudrait coucher avec elle,
on voudrait causer avec lui.'
                  
                      - Jean-Marie Chassaignon, Cataractes de l'imagination (Epiménide l'Inspire), Lyon, 1779

Poncet's Venus received critical acclaim when it was first presented to the public in 1778. Laudatory reviews were published in the Mercure de France and Giornale delle Belle Arti while poets praised the sensuous nude in verses such as that cited above.

Poncet sculpted the first version of his Venus during his fifteen-year stay in Italy, inspired by his encounter with the classical Medici Venus. He set the goddess against a cloud with her right knee lightly bent to create a subtle contraposto. She twists to her right, softly touching the cloud with her right hand while pointing down with the other. The two doves that tussle at her feet identify her as the Goddess of Love.

The version Poncet exhibited in 1778 was so well received by the public that he carved two further versions of the Venus four years later. The earlier marble was acquired by Ernest Cognac in 1928, and is today on view in the Musée Cognac Jay (inv. no. J247). The circular base and a ribbon that runs along Venus' arm and across her body into the dove's beak distinguish the 1778 marble from the present version from 1782. It is unclear to whom the present Venus belonged before it was rediscovered by Maurice Fenaille. Carletti is likely to have been looking at this statue when he praised the Venus for its likeness to Greek marbles in the Giornale delle Belle Arti on 22 May 1784 (pp. 161-163). The 'Vénus en marbre de Poncet, nature de 3/4' mentioned in the collection of the aristocrat Jacques Imbert-Colomès (1729-1808), the first mayor of Lyon, in 1804, could equally be this statue. The third version has not been located.  In 1784, Poncet sculpted an Adonis as a male pendant to Venus. This marble was bought by Lady Saint-George Usher and is now in National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin (inv. no. NGI.8135).

Before moving to Rome, Poncet attended the Académie des Beaux Arts in Marseille in 1754 and joined Etienne-Maurice Falconet's studio in Paris as an apprentice shortly after. He left for Italy in 1761 and would be at the forefront of neoclassicism in Rome for over 15 years. Amongst his earliest surviving works are terracotta reliefs of Artemisia from 1769 and The Holy Family dating to 1773 (Musée Historique, Lyon and Palazzo Barberini, Rome). The portrait bust of Voltaire mentioned in the poem above, sculpted during his stay in Ferney in 1776, shows Poncet's ability for creating vivid and naturalistic likenesses.

Maurice Fenaille (1855-1937) inherited his family's oil refinery in 1883. There he laid the ground work for a vast oil empire, with plants in Europe and the United States. Fenaille was a renowned patron of the arts, donating parts of his fortune to museums, restoring historical buildings and sponsoring contemporary artists like Bourdelle and Rodin. The oligarch played an important role in transforming the Hôtel Biron into a museum dedicated to the latter. The Venus decorated the hall at Fenaille's Parisian hôtel particulier on the Rue de l'Elysée.

RELATED LITERATURE
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole Française au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1970, p. 269 ; O. Michel, 'François-Marie Poncet (1736-1797) et le retour à l'antique' D. Ternois (ed.), Lyon et l'Italie. Six études d'histoire de l'art, Paris, 1984, pp. 136-141 ; O. Michel, Vivre et peindre à Rome au XVIIIe siècle, Rome, 1996; E.P. Bowron and J.J. Rishel (eds.), Art in Rome in the Eighteenth century, exhib. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 2000, p. 275-276, no. 146