Augustin Pajou (1730-1809)

Study of a Statue of Madame du Barry as Hebe standing on a Pedestal, an eagle at her feet

Details

Augustin Pajou (1730-1809)
Study of a Statue of Madame du Barry as Hebe standing on a Pedestal, an eagle at her feet
red chalk, watermarkk grapes
363 x 242 mm.

Provenance

A. Beurdeley (L. 421); Paris Drouot, 8-10 June 1920, lot 210 (19,050 FF).
Arthur M. Sackler.

Literature

H. Stein, Augustin Pajou, Paris, 1912, pp. 116-34, pl. IV.

Exhibited

Paris, Exposition Rétrospective de la ville de Paris, 1900, no. 221bis.
Paris, Expostion de 100 Portraits de Femmes, 1907, no. 117.

Lot Essay

The drawing dates between 1770 and 1774, the year of the death of King Louis XV, Madame du Barry's lover. The full length portrait was never realised, but in 1770 Pajou had executed a bust of the King's mistress. In the Salon of 1771 Pajou exhibited another portrait of Madame du Barry with the same iconography as the present one: as Hebe, the Greek Goddess of youth, daughter of Jupiter and Io who married Hercules, the symbol of the French Monarchy.

More from OLD MASTER DRAWING - SOUTH KENSINGTON

View All