French, 19th century, after François Girardon (1628 - 1715)

Thierry de Maigret Paris, 12 June 2009, lot 228.

This majestic bronze is a reduction of the equestrian monument to Louis XIV created by François Girardon (1636–1711) and cast by the Keller brothers. Erected in Paris, on the Place Louis-le-Grand (now the Place Vendôme) in 1699, the monumental bronze was destroyed during the French Revolution, in 1792. Only a few fragments survive, including a finger and a foot of the king, preserved today at the Musée Carnavalet, Paris (inv. RF 408A and B). A bronze reduction was cast during the sculptor’s lifetime, signed GIRARDON IN ET FEC (H. 102 cm), and exhibited at the Académie royale in 1704 (Musée du Louvre, inv. MR 3229). Other reductions of the same size are preserved at Windsor Castle (inv. B69/527), the Hermitage Museum, and the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

This celebrated model continued to be cast by Parisian bronziers throughout the 19th century, notably by Henri Dasson (1825–1896) and Louis-Auguste Beurdeley (1808–1882).

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Maral, F. de La Moureyre, François Girardon (1628-1715). Le Sculpteur de Louis XIV. Paris, 2015, p. 398, fig. 326, pp. 224-227.