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Lot Essay
This monumental bronze of Ajax bravant les Dieux is very probably a unique cast by the sculpteur-fondeur Crozatier from the original by Dupaty. Hero of the Torjan war, in Greek mythology Ajax is represented as a gigantic man. Athena caused him to be shipwrecked after the sack of Troy, but Poseidon saved him. Ajax, boasting of his own power defied the Gods and was struck down by lightening.
Ajax bravant les Dieux (Ajax defying the gods) was first shown in plaster at the 1812 salon (n° 1068). It was commissioned by the State in marble on 7 December that year by the minister de la Maison l’empereur at a cost of 15,000 francs. It was later shown at the 1817 salon and recorded in the galerie of the Palais Royal. The plaster was donated in 1883 by Jules Thomas, son of Alexis Francis, himself a sculptor and student of Dupaty, to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, where it remains.
Louis Marie Charles Henry Mercier Dupaty (1771–1825) was born in Bordeaux, a member of the distinguished liberal Dupaty family. He won the prix de Rome en 1799, exhibited at the salon on his return, receiving the Légion d’honneur in 1814, he became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and a curator of the Musée du Luxembourg. His father was an author and Speaker for the Parliament of Bordeaux and J.C. Mercier Dupaty was President of the Royal Court and close friend to the ‘roi-citoyen’ Louis-Phillipe.
The Marquess and Marchiness of Londonderry attended a dinner given by King Louis-Phillipe at the Palais des Tuileries in May 1837 when they travelled via Paris en route from St. Petersburg to London, and although Dupaty himself was deceased by this date it is logical to suggest that they may have acquired this bronze of Ajax, dated 1830, by Crozatier around this time, if not earlier. Like the marble of Suzanne au bain by Guersant (also offered in this sale), itself a copy of Beauvallet’s original ordered by Napoleon, this bronze of Ajax is a reproduction of a statue commissioned for l’empereur. It shows that the third Marquess, like Wellington, held a certain fascination with Empire sculpture though the compunction was presumably more a gesture of triumph than adulation.
It is possible that the over-life size Borghese gladiator (also offered in this) sale was bought in Paris at this time, and that it might also have been cast by Crozatier. Both Ajax and the gladiator were originally mounted on a plinths in the in the Italian Garden at Wynyard Park, where they are illustrated in situ in a photograph of circa 1910. The Italian garden was probably laid out by Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry in the 1830s. It is at some distance from the main house and was abandoned by the mid-20th century, presumably when the house was requisitioned during the Second World War.
Charles Crozatier (1795-1855), sculpteur and fondeur of bronze was born to a poor family in in Puy-en-Velay. At thirteen years of age he was apprenticed to the silversmith Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (1763-1850), and at eighteen he was admitted to the ‘Academia delle belle arti’ where he entered the workshop of the sculptor Pierre Cartellier (1757-1831) and he became the favourite pupil of François Joseph Bosio (1769-1845). Between 1821 and 1823, he visited Italy and specialised in the bronze castings of Renaissance and Baroque statues and fine gilt-bronze works of art. Operating from premises at rue du Parc Royal, Paris, Crozatier pioneered the bronze casting process for large statues, which he developed to great effect to make replacements for many statues destroyed during the revolution. Louis XVIII commissioned various major sculptures from Crozatier, such as the one of Napoleon in place Vendôme, Paris, and the equestrian statue of Louis XIV after the model by Cartellier, at Versailles. He was made chevalier of the Légion d' honneur by Charles X in 1828 and upon his death left a considerable legacy to his home town, to his fellow bronziers and for the hospitals of Paris.
Ajax bravant les Dieux (Ajax defying the gods) was first shown in plaster at the 1812 salon (n° 1068). It was commissioned by the State in marble on 7 December that year by the minister de la Maison l’empereur at a cost of 15,000 francs. It was later shown at the 1817 salon and recorded in the galerie of the Palais Royal. The plaster was donated in 1883 by Jules Thomas, son of Alexis Francis, himself a sculptor and student of Dupaty, to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, where it remains.
Louis Marie Charles Henry Mercier Dupaty (1771–1825) was born in Bordeaux, a member of the distinguished liberal Dupaty family. He won the prix de Rome en 1799, exhibited at the salon on his return, receiving the Légion d’honneur in 1814, he became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and a curator of the Musée du Luxembourg. His father was an author and Speaker for the Parliament of Bordeaux and J.C. Mercier Dupaty was President of the Royal Court and close friend to the ‘roi-citoyen’ Louis-Phillipe.
The Marquess and Marchiness of Londonderry attended a dinner given by King Louis-Phillipe at the Palais des Tuileries in May 1837 when they travelled via Paris en route from St. Petersburg to London, and although Dupaty himself was deceased by this date it is logical to suggest that they may have acquired this bronze of Ajax, dated 1830, by Crozatier around this time, if not earlier. Like the marble of Suzanne au bain by Guersant (also offered in this sale), itself a copy of Beauvallet’s original ordered by Napoleon, this bronze of Ajax is a reproduction of a statue commissioned for l’empereur. It shows that the third Marquess, like Wellington, held a certain fascination with Empire sculpture though the compunction was presumably more a gesture of triumph than adulation.
It is possible that the over-life size Borghese gladiator (also offered in this) sale was bought in Paris at this time, and that it might also have been cast by Crozatier. Both Ajax and the gladiator were originally mounted on a plinths in the in the Italian Garden at Wynyard Park, where they are illustrated in situ in a photograph of circa 1910. The Italian garden was probably laid out by Frances Anne, Marchioness of Londonderry in the 1830s. It is at some distance from the main house and was abandoned by the mid-20th century, presumably when the house was requisitioned during the Second World War.
Charles Crozatier (1795-1855), sculpteur and fondeur of bronze was born to a poor family in in Puy-en-Velay. At thirteen years of age he was apprenticed to the silversmith Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (1763-1850), and at eighteen he was admitted to the ‘Academia delle belle arti’ where he entered the workshop of the sculptor Pierre Cartellier (1757-1831) and he became the favourite pupil of François Joseph Bosio (1769-1845). Between 1821 and 1823, he visited Italy and specialised in the bronze castings of Renaissance and Baroque statues and fine gilt-bronze works of art. Operating from premises at rue du Parc Royal, Paris, Crozatier pioneered the bronze casting process for large statues, which he developed to great effect to make replacements for many statues destroyed during the revolution. Louis XVIII commissioned various major sculptures from Crozatier, such as the one of Napoleon in place Vendôme, Paris, and the equestrian statue of Louis XIV after the model by Cartellier, at Versailles. He was made chevalier of the Légion d' honneur by Charles X in 1828 and upon his death left a considerable legacy to his home town, to his fellow bronziers and for the hospitals of Paris.