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Lot Essay
ÉMILE-CORIOLAN-HIPPOLYTE GUILLEMIN
Born in Paris in 1841, Émile-Coriolan-Hippolyte Guillemin was the son of sculptor Émile-Marie-Auguste Guillemin, who worked for the state producing copies of antique sculptures and busts of various aristocrats. After studying with both his father and sculptor Jean-Jules-Bernard Salmson, Guillemin exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1870. Though his output was wide ranging, Guillemin became most well-known for depicting figures from the Middle East and Asia in an Orientalist style, a term made popular by Dr. Edward Said in the 20th century to describe Western depictions of the East in largely exoticized manners. Compared to many of his contemporaries, though, Guillemin’s sculptures lack the overt sexuality or sensuality and ‘otherness’ found in depictions of non-Europeans, especially women, and instead present seemingly studied depictions of figures representing a certain culture.
In fact, Guillemin's oeuvre is perhaps most adjacent to his contemporary, Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (d. 1905), a celebrated artist who frequently sculpted decorative objects such as lampadaires and other decorative objects. And, like Cordier, it was such luxurious vibrant colors that made Guillemin's sculpture so commercially successful. Guillemin is however considered very much a fine rather than a purely decorative artist, though his oeuvre was often associated with large-scale works furniture works and torchères. His work is legitimized in part by the patronage of the American Gilded Age collectors such as Cornelius Vanderbilt II and will remain valued for the honesty in the portrayal of his sitters. This is most apparent in an equally arresting pair of portrait busts of Femme Kabyle d'Algerie and Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II, sold from The Estate of Rochelle Sepenuk, Sotheby's, New York, 21 October 2008, lot 92 ($1,202,500).
JAPONISME: EAST MEETS WEST
Beyond being ‘Orientalist’ in style, the male and female busts offered here can be described more specifically as part of the Japonisme movement which became popular in France in the second half of the 19th century. Following over two hundred years of isolation, Japan was forcibly opened to trade with the West by a joint English, French, and American coalition led by American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854. Widely known as the Meiji Restoration, the enforced opening led to an influx of Japanese goods into Europe, as well as greater participation by Japan in International Exhibitions. Fascinated by this new aesthetic vocabulary, Western artisans, and especially those in France, began to study Japanese forms and techniques found in cloisonné enamel, marquetry of shell and ivory, carved wood and patinated bronze, creating their own works by adopting and reinterpreting these new aesthetics and motifs. In doing so these designers created a constructed view of the East, an amalgamation of Eastern and Western influences, which anticipated the organic forms of Art Nouveau and Aestheticism. Though at times falling to the exoticizing levels of other forms of Orientalist art, Japonisme was more often focused on interpreting Japanese architectural and design motifs as opposed to figures themselves. This can be seen in the present lot with the cloud motif on the male figure's jacket, the flattened floral pattern on the female figure’s robe, and the figures on the two fans, all reminiscent of traditional designs from Japanese lacquer, textiles, and illustrations.
CHRISTOFLE & CIE.: MASTERS OF 'GALVANOPLASTIE'
Around 1830, Charles Christofle took over his brother-in-law's bijouterie-joaillerie 'Maison Calmette' and changed its name to 'Société Charles Christofle et Cie'. Christofle pioneered the production of relatively affordable electroplated flat and tableware having obtained patents in 1842 and 1843 from Elkington, their English competitor, for the galvanic process of gilding and silvering, known as argenterie electro-chimique. Pieces produced by this new process were first exhibited at the Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, Paris, in 1844 and won the firm a gold medal and its founder the Légion d'Honneur. The commercial success brought by the production of electroplated silverware firmly established Christofle as France's leading manufacturer of gold and silverware in the second half of the 19th century. Following Charles Christofle's death in 1863 the firm passed to his son Paul (d. 1907) and nephew Henri Bouilhet (d. 1910) who worked to promote fine workmanship and design.
It is not surpringing that the present busts, a tour de force in contrasting polychromy, were produced at a time when designer Émile-Auguste Reiber (d.1893), the ‘high priest of Japonisme,’ had rose to Director at Christofle. Rieber used his technical prowess in orfévrerie, galvanoplastie (electroplating) and bronzework to create works that were innovative both technically and artistically in their combination of materials and use of Chinese, Japanese, and earlier French chinoiserie motifs. Among the works which Christofle exhibited under his direction at the 1878 Exposition universelle were the present busts and a highly sculptural encoignure cabinet-on-stand, sold at Christie’s, London, 8 July 2021, lot 10 (£682,500), among other objets d'art conceived by the virtuoso designer.
The present busts figure among a rarified group of exquisitely polychromed works by Guillemin and cast by Christofle and relate closely to an exceptional pair of life-size Japanese female figural torchères exhibited in 1878 alongside the present lot and subsequently acquired by William H. Vanderbilt’s for his 'Japanese Parlour' at 640 Fifth Avenue. The pair of figures, as illustrated in Earl Shinn’s Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, William H. Vanderbilt of 1883, are quite clearly cast and patinated in near identical finish with rich and contrasting red, gold and black with silvered highlights.
Christie's is grateful to Anne Gros, curator of the Christofle Collection, for her assistance in providing the exhibition history of these busts.
Born in Paris in 1841, Émile-Coriolan-Hippolyte Guillemin was the son of sculptor Émile-Marie-Auguste Guillemin, who worked for the state producing copies of antique sculptures and busts of various aristocrats. After studying with both his father and sculptor Jean-Jules-Bernard Salmson, Guillemin exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1870. Though his output was wide ranging, Guillemin became most well-known for depicting figures from the Middle East and Asia in an Orientalist style, a term made popular by Dr. Edward Said in the 20th century to describe Western depictions of the East in largely exoticized manners. Compared to many of his contemporaries, though, Guillemin’s sculptures lack the overt sexuality or sensuality and ‘otherness’ found in depictions of non-Europeans, especially women, and instead present seemingly studied depictions of figures representing a certain culture.
In fact, Guillemin's oeuvre is perhaps most adjacent to his contemporary, Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (d. 1905), a celebrated artist who frequently sculpted decorative objects such as lampadaires and other decorative objects. And, like Cordier, it was such luxurious vibrant colors that made Guillemin's sculpture so commercially successful. Guillemin is however considered very much a fine rather than a purely decorative artist, though his oeuvre was often associated with large-scale works furniture works and torchères. His work is legitimized in part by the patronage of the American Gilded Age collectors such as Cornelius Vanderbilt II and will remain valued for the honesty in the portrayal of his sitters. This is most apparent in an equally arresting pair of portrait busts of Femme Kabyle d'Algerie and Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II, sold from The Estate of Rochelle Sepenuk, Sotheby's, New York, 21 October 2008, lot 92 ($1,202,500).
JAPONISME: EAST MEETS WEST
Beyond being ‘Orientalist’ in style, the male and female busts offered here can be described more specifically as part of the Japonisme movement which became popular in France in the second half of the 19th century. Following over two hundred years of isolation, Japan was forcibly opened to trade with the West by a joint English, French, and American coalition led by American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854. Widely known as the Meiji Restoration, the enforced opening led to an influx of Japanese goods into Europe, as well as greater participation by Japan in International Exhibitions. Fascinated by this new aesthetic vocabulary, Western artisans, and especially those in France, began to study Japanese forms and techniques found in cloisonné enamel, marquetry of shell and ivory, carved wood and patinated bronze, creating their own works by adopting and reinterpreting these new aesthetics and motifs. In doing so these designers created a constructed view of the East, an amalgamation of Eastern and Western influences, which anticipated the organic forms of Art Nouveau and Aestheticism. Though at times falling to the exoticizing levels of other forms of Orientalist art, Japonisme was more often focused on interpreting Japanese architectural and design motifs as opposed to figures themselves. This can be seen in the present lot with the cloud motif on the male figure's jacket, the flattened floral pattern on the female figure’s robe, and the figures on the two fans, all reminiscent of traditional designs from Japanese lacquer, textiles, and illustrations.
CHRISTOFLE & CIE.: MASTERS OF 'GALVANOPLASTIE'
Around 1830, Charles Christofle took over his brother-in-law's bijouterie-joaillerie 'Maison Calmette' and changed its name to 'Société Charles Christofle et Cie'. Christofle pioneered the production of relatively affordable electroplated flat and tableware having obtained patents in 1842 and 1843 from Elkington, their English competitor, for the galvanic process of gilding and silvering, known as argenterie electro-chimique. Pieces produced by this new process were first exhibited at the Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, Paris, in 1844 and won the firm a gold medal and its founder the Légion d'Honneur. The commercial success brought by the production of electroplated silverware firmly established Christofle as France's leading manufacturer of gold and silverware in the second half of the 19th century. Following Charles Christofle's death in 1863 the firm passed to his son Paul (d. 1907) and nephew Henri Bouilhet (d. 1910) who worked to promote fine workmanship and design.
It is not surpringing that the present busts, a tour de force in contrasting polychromy, were produced at a time when designer Émile-Auguste Reiber (d.1893), the ‘high priest of Japonisme,’ had rose to Director at Christofle. Rieber used his technical prowess in orfévrerie, galvanoplastie (electroplating) and bronzework to create works that were innovative both technically and artistically in their combination of materials and use of Chinese, Japanese, and earlier French chinoiserie motifs. Among the works which Christofle exhibited under his direction at the 1878 Exposition universelle were the present busts and a highly sculptural encoignure cabinet-on-stand, sold at Christie’s, London, 8 July 2021, lot 10 (£682,500), among other objets d'art conceived by the virtuoso designer.
The present busts figure among a rarified group of exquisitely polychromed works by Guillemin and cast by Christofle and relate closely to an exceptional pair of life-size Japanese female figural torchères exhibited in 1878 alongside the present lot and subsequently acquired by William H. Vanderbilt’s for his 'Japanese Parlour' at 640 Fifth Avenue. The pair of figures, as illustrated in Earl Shinn’s Mr. Vanderbilt's House and Collection, William H. Vanderbilt of 1883, are quite clearly cast and patinated in near identical finish with rich and contrasting red, gold and black with silvered highlights.
Christie's is grateful to Anne Gros, curator of the Christofle Collection, for her assistance in providing the exhibition history of these busts.