A Pair of Gilt and Patinated Bronze Atlas Figures, 20th Century

Acquired through Thierry Despont, New York 1996

This lot is based on a pair of large Atlas figures bearing a terrestrial and celestial globe created by the artist and draughtsman Pierre Lartigue (1745-1826) and the scientific and mathematical instrument maker Lennel Louis-Pierre Florimont (1743-1781) in 1777 and offered to King Louis XVI in 1778. They stood in the King's library at Versailles until 1793, when they were nationalised by the Revolutionary government and eventually transferred to the custodianship of the French armed forces. In the 20th century they were put back on display at Versailles, and more recently were lent to the exhibition Versailles: Science and Splendour at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (12 December 2024 - 21 April 2025).

Standing figures of Atlas carrying a globe or Ptolemaic sphere were a recurrent motif in Western sculpture during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance and were inspired by surviving works from Antiquity, such as the four life-size Atlantes formerly supporting a fountain at the Villa Albani outside Rome, which were well-known to 18th century artists and are now in the Louvre (inv. V 5080 et V 5261). The Latin inscriptions on the bases of the offered lot, taken from text by Pliny the Elder, roughly translate as Earth is the centre of the world and Motion of the planets and theory of their light.

A single Atlas figure carrying an armillary sphere, dated late 18th or early 19th century and formerly in the collection of the French designer François Catroux was sold Christie's Paris, 30 June 2022, lot 135 (EUR 151,200), and examples of figures and pedestals identical to the offered lot that have appeared at auction include a pair from the Emilio Terry Collection sold Sotheby's New York, 17 October 2015, lot 608 ($81,250) and a further pair at Christie's New York, 22 April 2008, lot 165 ($91,000).