Jean Esprit Marcellin

Private collection, France, until sold in 2023

This fine marble was carved by Jean Esprit Marcellin, who was a student of François Rude and of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris and exhibited for the first time in the 1845 Salon. Amongst his official commissions in Paris were several sculptures for the façade of the Louvre, the Tuileries Palace, the Town Hall, the Opera and the churches of La Sorbonne and Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais. He was also the author of the pediment of the Town Hall of Marseille and the marble group of the Shepherd Cypress (Grenoble Museum).

Marcellin produced several versions of this charming model in 1854-1855, in marble, bronze and plaster, enlisted by Gérard Brès in the 1992 exhibition catalogue (op. cit.). The model received significant praise, including by Théophile Gautier who described the work as "œuvre pleine de charme et de talent" (a work characterised by great charm and talent) and by Larousse, who mentioned that this work is one of his most gracious.

RELATED LITERATURE

G. Brès, Jean Esprit Marcellin, 1821-1884, statuaire, exh. cat. Musée départemental de Gap, 1992, pp.137-139, nos. 20a-e