HONORE DAUMIER (1808-1979)

Details

HONORE DAUMIER (1808-1979)

Le Hargneux (Soult)

stamped MLG Bronze on the back--numbered 15/25 inside --bronze with brown patina
Height: 6in. (15.2cm.)

Original painted clay version executed in
this bronze version cast 1929-1952; number 15 in an edition of 25

Provenance

Galerie Beyeler, Basel (1959)
Rune Swanstrom, Sweden
M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York (1961)
Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York (1966)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; sale, Christie's, New York, May 15, 1986, lot 250 (acquired by the present owner)

Literature

M. Gobin, Daumier Sculpture, Geneva, 1952, pp. 224-225, no. 30 (original painted clay sculpture and another bronze cast illustrated p. )
J. Wasserman, Daumier Sculpture, A Critical and Comparative Study, Cambridge, Mass., 1969, pp. 158-160, nos. 36a, 36b, 36d (original painted clay sculpture and another bronze cast illustrated p. )

Exhibited

New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Modern Sculpture from the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection, Oct., 1962-Jan., 1963, no. 86

Lot Essay

Disagreeing with Maurice Gobin (op. cit.), Jeanne Wasserman (op. cit.) does not believe this sculpture to be a bust of Marshal Soult. She has called this head the 'most skillful, and the most exaggerated, of Daumier's studies of physiognomy' (op. cit., p. 158). This bronze was cast by the Barbedienne foundry for Maurice le Garrec, who purchased the unbaked clay original in 1927. The last of the 25 Barbedienne casts were completed by 1952 and the mold was returned to Mme le Garrec. She had three more casts made by Valsuani in 1965 and the plaster mold was destroyed.

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