Augustin Pajou

A. Beurdeley (L.421),
his sale, Paris, Féral and Paulme, Hôtel Drouot, 8-10  June 1920, lot 210 (19,050 FF, noted in Bénézit);
David David-Weill,
his sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 9-10 June 1971, lot 222;
Arthur M. Sackler, Washington;
sale, New York, Christie's, 12 January 1995, lot 183;
sale, London, Christie's South Kensington, 21 April 1998, lot 229
with W. M. Brady & Co., New York 2000

Paris, Exposition universelle de 1900: Exposition rétrospective de la ville de Paris, 1900, no. 221 bis;
Paris, Exposition de cent Portraits de Femme, 1907, no. 117

Baron de Vinck, Iconographie de Marie-Antoinette, no date, illustrated (as a portrait of Marie-Antoinette);
H. Stein, Augustin Pajou, 1912, pp. 116-34, reproduced p. 96, pl. IV;
G. Henriot, Collection David-Weill, Dessins, Paris 1928, vol. 2, pp. 331-2, reproduced p. 333

Window mounted , fresh and in good condition. Sold mounted and framed in an old carved and gilded French frame
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This counterproof from the Beurdeley collection is related to a project by Pajou which was probably never realized.  At the Salon of 1771 the sculptor did exhibit a Hebe, Goddess of Youth in terracotta. This was going to be executed in marble for Madame Du Barry, although as Scherf points out, Pajou never requested payment and therefore the work cannot actually have been executed.¹  The exhibited terracotta has been identified with a group formerly recorded in the François Flameng and David-Weill collections.²  The present counterproof is close to the corresponding figure in that terracotta, but there are also significant differences, notably that in the sculpture she is attended by a winged putto, rather than an eagle, and her hair style and classical tunic are simplified when compared with the more official representation in the present drawing.

Madame Du Barry was particularly fond of identifying herself with Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth, who was the daughter of Jupiter and Io, and who married Hercules after his ascent to Olympus. This was surely an allusion to her relationship with King Louis XV, whose traditional allegorical representation was as Hercules.  Scherf writes that the favor that Pajou enjoyed with Madame Du Barry won him great celebrity as a portraitist of women. She commissioned from him no fewer than five portrait busts, as well as several other works, including decorative sculptures for her pavillion at Louveciennes.

1.  J. D. Draper, G. Scherf, Augustin Pajou, exhib. cat., Paris, Musée du Louvre and New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, p. 237
2.  Ibid., p. 237, reproduced fig. 160