.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In 1776 Claude-Michel, dit Clodion, embarked on the highly ambitious project of executing a series of interior designs for the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brogniart (d.1813) for the luxurious interiors at the Hôtel de Besenval in Paris. The Salle de Bains, ultimately completed in 1782, featured a pair of palatial limestone reliefs depicting Venus and Cupid and Leda and the Swan and Pan Pursuing Syrinx, two pairs of vases, and a large fountain of the present reclining nude, titled Vue de la Naïade allongée, dite La Source (A. Poulet, Clodion: 1738-1814, Paris, 1992, pp. 248-251).
Proving to be an enduring image, La Source was creatively fitted as a clock by the 19th century’s preeminent ébénistes and bronziers. Most interestingly, François Linke produced the model in at least two versions, including a bronze and white marble edition similar to the present lot (C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 352).
Proving to be an enduring image, La Source was creatively fitted as a clock by the 19th century’s preeminent ébénistes and bronziers. Most interestingly, François Linke produced the model in at least two versions, including a bronze and white marble edition similar to the present lot (C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, p. 352).