Workshop of Barthélemy Prieur, French, 17th century

William John Bankes of Kingston Lacey, by repute;

With Daniel Katz, Ltd., London, 2000;

Where acquired by the late collector.

J. Auersperg and K. Zock, European Sculpture, Daniel Katz Ltd., London 2000, cat. no. 18.

This model, along with a series of small bronzes, which included an Acrobat Standing on his Hands and a Man Carrying a Child, had been given to an unknown Italo-Flemish artist previously known as the Master of the Genre Figures. Anthony Radcliffe subsequently noted the presence of the current model and the acrobat in the inventory of the esteemed 17th century art collector André Le Nôtre, who was also the principal landscape architect of King Louis XIV. Radcliffe demonstrated that these bronzes were likely made in France, and he drew comparisons between these works and other small bronzes by Barthélemy Prieur, including his unique, large, signed bronze figure of Henri IV as Jupiter, dated circa 1600-1610, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (accession number: OA 11054).

The treatment of Henri IV's body is repeated in both the present model, as well as Man Carrying a Child on his Shoulder: in all three works, a nude male figure is depicted with elongated proportions, his legs slightly apart and weight resting on the forward leg as he moves mid-stride.

RELATED LITERATURE

H.R. Weihrauch, Europaische Bronzestatuetten 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Brunswick, 1967;

B. Jestaz, 'Travaux recents sur les bronzes, II, renaissance septentrionale et Baroque', Revue de l'Art, 1970, no.9, pp.78ff. no.112;

A. Radcliffe, The Rogers and Cotton bequest, Plymouth and City Museum and Art Gallery, exh. cat., London, 1979 no. 3;

Cast in Bronze. French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, G. Bresc-Bautier, G. Scherf and J. Draper (eds.), exhibition catalogue, Musée du Louvre, Paris, and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2009.