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Lot Essay
Madame de Grandménil, née Adélaïde Béllisson (1737-1800), was an actress married to the even more celebrated actor Jean-Baptiste Fauchard de Grandménil (1737-1816). M. de Grandménil was forced into exile in 1771 and only returned to the Paris stage in 1790 where he became a fixture at the Comédie Française until his retirement in 1811.
It appears this plaster bust of Mme. de Grandménil is unique in Houdon's oeuvre. Georges Giacometti, in his ground-breaking two volume Houdon monograph, illustrates this plaster, along with the inscribed marble base that still supports it, and describes it as plâtre original from the very last years of the 18th century (loc. cit., pp. 62-63). This dating is corroborated by Mme. de Grandménil's hairstyle which was the height of fashion during the Directoire period. Additionally, de Grandménil died in 1800. So the bust must have either been finished by then -- or could have been commissioned by her husband posthumously, perhaps in rememberance. And both the simplicity of the costumes -- contrasting with the elegant attention to the hairstyles -- and gentle regard relate the present bust to several of Houdon's other female busts of the period such as the Princesse Lucien Bonaparte (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris), and Mme. Duquesnoy (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) and even the bust of the artist's daughter Sabine at the age of fifteen (Musée du Louvre).
This plaster bust -- together with another bust of Mme. Grandménil but in terracotta and not signed -- were both together in the 1919 Drouot sale of the Fury-Hérard collection (the plaster as lot 300 and the terracotta as lot 299) along with a plaster bust of M. de Grandménil. The terracotta was puchased by M. H. Roux and then, apparently later ended up in the collection of André Camoin. And the present plaster was bought also bought by André Camoin, but directly from the 1919 sale. Nine years later, at the time of the Deuxième exposition du centenaire de Houdon at the Galerie Buvelot, in 1928, the plaster was still in the collection of Camoin. It then surfaced at the Heim Gallery exhibition of 1979 and shortly thereafter was in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art.
The terracotta of Mme de Grandménil which was sold alongside the plaster in the 1919 Drouot sale was sold recently from the collection of Raymond Subes in a Drouot sale of 10 December, 2003, lot 215. And a second plaster bust -- unsigned but more closely related to the terracotta and including the chest and also apparently a unique model -- was sold Sotheby's, Paris, 18 June, 2002, lot 158.
It appears this plaster bust of Mme. de Grandménil is unique in Houdon's oeuvre. Georges Giacometti, in his ground-breaking two volume Houdon monograph, illustrates this plaster, along with the inscribed marble base that still supports it, and describes it as plâtre original from the very last years of the 18th century (loc. cit., pp. 62-63). This dating is corroborated by Mme. de Grandménil's hairstyle which was the height of fashion during the Directoire period. Additionally, de Grandménil died in 1800. So the bust must have either been finished by then -- or could have been commissioned by her husband posthumously, perhaps in rememberance. And both the simplicity of the costumes -- contrasting with the elegant attention to the hairstyles -- and gentle regard relate the present bust to several of Houdon's other female busts of the period such as the Princesse Lucien Bonaparte (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris), and Mme. Duquesnoy (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) and even the bust of the artist's daughter Sabine at the age of fifteen (Musée du Louvre).
This plaster bust -- together with another bust of Mme. Grandménil but in terracotta and not signed -- were both together in the 1919 Drouot sale of the Fury-Hérard collection (the plaster as lot 300 and the terracotta as lot 299) along with a plaster bust of M. de Grandménil. The terracotta was puchased by M. H. Roux and then, apparently later ended up in the collection of André Camoin. And the present plaster was bought also bought by André Camoin, but directly from the 1919 sale. Nine years later, at the time of the Deuxième exposition du centenaire de Houdon at the Galerie Buvelot, in 1928, the plaster was still in the collection of Camoin. It then surfaced at the Heim Gallery exhibition of 1979 and shortly thereafter was in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art.
The terracotta of Mme de Grandménil which was sold alongside the plaster in the 1919 Drouot sale was sold recently from the collection of Raymond Subes in a Drouot sale of 10 December, 2003, lot 215. And a second plaster bust -- unsigned but more closely related to the terracotta and including the chest and also apparently a unique model -- was sold Sotheby's, Paris, 18 June, 2002, lot 158.