A French terracotta bust of Corbin de Cordet de Florensac, by Augustin Pajou (1730-1809), last quarter 18th century

Descendants of Florensac, acquired 1969
Heim Gallery, London
Arthur M. Sackler Collection, sold Sotheby's, New York, January 29, 2010, lot 490

Heim Gallery, Recent Acquisitions, French Paintings and Sculptures of the 17th and 18th Century: Summer Exhibition, London, 1979, no. 27
Charles Avery, with Alastair Laing, Fingerprints of the artist: European terra-cotta sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler collections, Washington, D.C., 1981, no. 80 (illus.)
Ian Wardropper, European Terracotta Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler collections: the Art Institute of Chicago (exh. cat.) , December 9, 1987 - March 6, 1988, no. 24
James David Draper and Guilhem Scherf, Augustin Pajou Royal Sculptor 1730-1809 (exh. cat.), New York and Paris, 1997, pp. 348-349, figs. 214 and 215 (illus.)

Surface abrasions and chips. Some restorations to breaks include the nose, lower back, proper left shoulder, neck, and parts of the ruffle. Some losses around collar and ruffle. There is some in-painting to unify the surface. Beautifully modeled. Minor abrasions to marble socle. Color slightly more ochre and less red in reality.
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This unsigned bust with intense gaze and loose, open collar can be compared with several portrait busts by Pajou dating from the 1790s. His stylish coiffure with his catogan  partially held up by a comb demonstrating Pajou's "flair for hair" (New York 1981, op. cit. p. 348) is very similar to a signed and dated bust of Madame de Bonnard sold in these rooms, Paris, March 17, 2002, lot 90.

Stylistically, Florensac's portrait compares closest with Pajou's bust of Jean-Baptiste Riban, a painter from Montpellier, showing a similar treatment of the curly hair framing his face with the open collar and shirt carefully modelled in the wet clay, as well as the fine portrait bust of 'le citoyen' Louis Deranc, signed and dated 1793.
Corbin de Cordet de Florensac, Deputy from the Herault and les Etats Generaux du Languedoc, was in Versailles in 1789. The present bust was made during Pajou's sojourn in Montpellier, where he lived from 1792 to 1794. Due to his strong relationships in this town, he had the opportunity to portray the haute Bourgeoisie of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, far from the terror of the French Revolution in Paris.