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COLLECTION MADAME ET MONSIEUR HENRY VIGUIER
JOSEPH ET JEAN-BAPTISTE IGNACE BROCHE, D’APRÈS JEAN-PIERRE-ANTOINE TASSAERT (1727-1788), DATÉ 1776
Char de Vénus
Details
JOSEPH ET JEAN-BAPTISTE IGNACE BROCHE, D’APRÈS JEAN-PIERRE-ANTOINE TASSAERT (1727-1788), DATÉ 1776
Char de Vénus
groupe en marbre, monogrammé et daté « J.B. / An. 1776 », reposant sur une gaine postérieure en bois en partie peint à l’imitation du marbre
H. du marbre : 62 cm (24 3⁄8 in.), H. totale avec la gaine : 176 cm (69 ¼ in.)
Char de Vénus
groupe en marbre, monogrammé et daté « J.B. / An. 1776 », reposant sur une gaine postérieure en bois en partie peint à l’imitation du marbre
H. du marbre : 62 cm (24 3⁄8 in.), H. totale avec la gaine : 176 cm (69 ¼ in.)
Provenance
Madame et Monsieur Henry Viguier (1877-1967), dans leur hôtel particulier 1 Villa Saïd, Paris ;
Leur vente, Mes Ader et Picard, Paris, Palais Galliera, 21 mars 1968, lot 38, d’où racheté par un membre de la famille ;
Puis par descendance jusqu’à nos jours.
Leur vente, Mes Ader et Picard, Paris, Palais Galliera, 21 mars 1968, lot 38, d’où racheté par un membre de la famille ;
Puis par descendance jusqu’à nos jours.
Literature
S. Kec, Les Sculpteurs Broz, Brosch, Broche, mémoire de d'histoire de l'art, Université Paris IV - Sorbonne, Paris, 1990.
C. B. Bailey, "Mécénat privé ? Mécénat public ? L'abbé Terray, collectionneur de sculptures contemporaines", in. Clodion et la sculpture française de la fin du XVIIIe siècle, actes de colloque, Paris, 1992, pp. 189-222.
G. Scherf (dir.), Augustin Pajou et ses contemporains, actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le Service culturel les 7 et 8 novembre 1997, Paris, 1999, pp. 200-201, fig. 9 (ill.).
G. Scherf, « Problèmes d’attribution : marbres de Falconet, Tassaert et Broche », dans Falconet à Sèvres 1757-1766 ou l’art de plaire, Paris, 2001, p. 43, note 16.
Bibliographie comparative :
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-huitième siècle, t. I, Paris, 1911, pp. 140-141.
B. de Andia (dir.), Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Paris, 1994, pp. 177-178.
J. Foucart-Borville, La vie et l'oeuvre du sculpteur Simon Pfaff de Pfaffehoffen, Abbeville, 1996, pp. 67-69, fig. 37-38.
C. B. Bailey, "Mécénat privé ? Mécénat public ? L'abbé Terray, collectionneur de sculptures contemporaines", in. Clodion et la sculpture française de la fin du XVIIIe siècle, actes de colloque, Paris, 1992, pp. 189-222.
G. Scherf (dir.), Augustin Pajou et ses contemporains, actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le Service culturel les 7 et 8 novembre 1997, Paris, 1999, pp. 200-201, fig. 9 (ill.).
G. Scherf, « Problèmes d’attribution : marbres de Falconet, Tassaert et Broche », dans Falconet à Sèvres 1757-1766 ou l’art de plaire, Paris, 2001, p. 43, note 16.
Bibliographie comparative :
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-huitième siècle, t. I, Paris, 1911, pp. 140-141.
B. de Andia (dir.), Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Paris, 1994, pp. 177-178.
J. Foucart-Borville, La vie et l'oeuvre du sculpteur Simon Pfaff de Pfaffehoffen, Abbeville, 1996, pp. 67-69, fig. 37-38.
Further Details
A MARBLE GROUP OF VENUS ON HER SHELL CHARIOT, JOSEPH AND IGNACE BROCHE, AFTER JEAN-PIERRE-ANTOINE TASSAERT (1727-1788), DATED 1776
Executed by Joseph and Jean-Baptiste Ignace Broche after a now-lost model by Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert, this marble group, depicting Venus on her Shell or The Chariot of Venus, constitutes an important example of the dissemination, in Parisian sculpture during the second half of the 18th century, of the taste developed notably around the creations of Étienne Maurice Falconet. The workshops of Tassaert and the Broche brothers helped popularize a type of small-scale gallant marble sculpture that competed with the productions of the Sèvres manufactory and responded to the growing demand for cabinet objects inspired by Falconet's repertoire.
The Broche brothers
The Broche brothers, Joseph (1740–1807) and Jean-Baptiste Ignace (1741–1794), probably from Belfort, belong to this still only partially documented sphere of Parisian production, characterized by a strong stylistic homogeneity. Born in 1740 and 1741 respectively, they may have been the sons of the Czech-born sculptor Jean Joseph Ignace Brosch, who settled in Alsace. Their association is documented as early as 1763 by the engraver Jean-Georges Wille, who noted in his Journal on 14 April: “Two young sculptors, named Broche, brought to my house, to be exhibited, a group of three figures in plaster.” This account suggests an early collaboration between the two brothers, whose works are often mentioned together.
Jean-Baptiste Ignace, the better documented of the two, trained at the schools of the Académie Royale from 1757 to 1762 under the patronage of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. Awarded the Grand Prix of the Académie Royale in 1761, he was received as a master on 16 November 1762 and joined the Académie de Saint-Luc in the same year, where he became assistant professor in 1763 and professor in 1775. His career came to a premature end with his death in 1794. That of his brother Joseph, born in 1740, remains much less well known; the available sources notably mention his bankruptcy and the seizure of his property in 1781. Among the known works of Jean-Baptiste Ignace is the tomb of the Chevalier du Terrail, formerly in the Church of the Theatines on the Quai Malaquais in Paris. Of this monument, only a fragment representing Grief or Mourning Figure survives today, preserved in the musée du Louvre (inv. LP 544). The association of the two brothers in the present Venus on her Shell thus forms part of a body of work whose documentation remains fragmentary, but which attests to their contribution to the diffusion of sculptural models in Paris during the second half of the 18th century.
The model for The Chariot of Venus, a commission from the Abbé Terray
This marble of Venus on her Shell is based on a model designed by Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert (1727–1788) for the now-lost hôtel particulier of the Abbé Terray on the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.
Born in Antwerp, Tassaert moved to London before settling in Paris, where he studied in the workshop of René-Michel Slodtz. He worked for a wealthy European private clientele before entering the service of Frederick II in Berlin, where he moved in 1775. The Abbé Terray commissioned him for the decoration of his new hôtel particulier, built from 1769 onwards. This residence was constructed in the latest fashion by the architect Antoine Matthieu Le Carpentier (1709–1773). It housed a sculpture gallery, the programme of which was likewise entrusted to him.
The year 1773 marked a turning point in Terray’s career, when he succeeded the Marquis de Marigny as Directeur General of the Bâtiments du Roi. In this capacity, he took part in projects for the restoration of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre and in plans to display the King’s paintings there. Alongside his new responsibilities, he undertook to assemble, for his new hôtel particulier, a collection of monumental modern sculpture bringing together the leading sculptors of his time, among them Clodion, Pajou, Pigalle, Mouchy, Lecomte, Caffieri and Tassaert. More patron than collector, Terray favoured contemporary creations over works by previous generations. Through both the subjects addressed and the choice of artists he commissioned, Terray’s patronage reflects not only his personal ambitions but also his position within the royal administration and the artistic prosperity of the Kingdom of France.
Archival sources, notably a declaration of 1773 studied by Guilhem Scherf, attest to the presence of a group representing Venus on her Shell, for which the inventory drawn up after the death of the Abbé Terray provides a detailed description. The group was paired with another, Arion Playing the Lyre, executed by Charles-Antoine Bridan and visible in Jean-Laurent Mosnier’s portrait of the sculptor (École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, inv. MU 1502). Tassaert’s Venus on her Shell and Charles-Antoine Bridan’s Arion Playing the Lyre were commissioned in the context of the furnishing of Terray’s hôtel particulier, without, however, belonging to the programme devised for the sculpture gallery itself. Their commission constitutes one of the few documented examples that can be attributed with certainty to the intermediary role played by the architect Antoine Matthieu Le Carpentier. Sources further attest that Terray commissioned from Tassaert a copy of Falconet’s Bather, reflecting the contemporary taste for the adaptation of celebrated sculptural models.
Signed Broche and dated 1776, the present version forms part of this practice and faithfully reproduces Tassaert’s composition, whose original model has not been located today.
The success of the model
The composition adopted by Broche in 1776 belongs to a group of versions now partly dispersed or lost, the identification of which allows a better understanding of the diffusion of Tassaert’s model. A version by the sculptor Simon Georges Joseph de Pfaffenhoven, known as Pfaff (1715–1784), was kept at Monbijou Palace in Berlin, where it still survived around 1930. It was most likely destroyed during the Second World War.
A life-size plaster of the same composition was also formerly situated in the garden of the Folie Saint-James (Neuilly), before being acquired by Robert de Montesquiou around 1906 for his Pavillon des Muses, where it remained.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington preserves a marble group of Venus on the Shell, now attributed to Étienne Maurice Falconet (inv. A1625), whose subject and composition are comparable to Tassaert’s model, although it differs notably in the absence of the shells and Venus’s nudity. Initially attributed to Bouchardon, then successively to Pajou and today to Falconet, Guilhem Scherf has proposed associating it with Tassaert’s œuvre; however, its stylistic ambiguity led Charles Avery, among others, to question its authenticity as an 18th century work, as the possibility of an early 19th century pastiche cannot be ruled out.
Another version, whose present whereabouts are unknown, appears to have belonged to the fermier général Étienne Michel Bouret before passing to the Hôtel de Villemorien, where in 1789 it was described as “a marble group in a shell representing Venus and two lovers”. Dufort de Cheverny referred to it in his Mémoires, specifying that the figure was nude and represented the portrait of a lady from Bouret’s circle.
Henri Viguier, collector and director of the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville
The inclusion of our marble in the sale of the Viguier collection (Ader and Picard, 21 March 1968, lot 38) attests to its place within one of the major private collections of 18th century art assembled during the 20th century. Henry Viguier (1877–1967), grandson of François-Xavier Ruel, founder of the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville (BHV), succeeded to the leadership of the family business and oversaw its development, notably its flotation on the stock exchange in 1960. Together with his wife Renée, he assembled a collection of 18th century art and furniture, a significant part of which was installed at the Château de Bouges, known as the “Petit Trianon du Berry”, acquired by the couple in 1917. Fitted out from 1919 onwards, the residence became an expression of their taste for the decorative arts and the French art of living.
The ensemble preserved at Bouges was bequeathed to the Caisse nationale des monuments historiques in 1956, while some of their possessions were dispersed at the 1968 auction sale. Although the château now stands as the most celebrated testament to their collection, the Viguier also owned several other residences, notably the Manoir de Beuzeval in Houlgate and a villa in Grasse. Our group was displayed in their Parisian hôtel particulier on Villa Saïd. Situated at the entrance to this private street extending from the upper end of Avenue Foch, the substantial residence stood alongside the home of banker and industrialist Victor Lyon (1878-1963) at No. 72 Avenue Foch, as well as those of Paul Dalloz and Anatole France on Villa Saïd itself. The house appears in a photograph from the Roger-Viollet collection (inv. 1964-3) but was unfortunately demolished shortly after the mid-20th century.
Executed by Joseph and Jean-Baptiste Ignace Broche after a now-lost model by Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert, this marble group, depicting Venus on her Shell or The Chariot of Venus, constitutes an important example of the dissemination, in Parisian sculpture during the second half of the 18th century, of the taste developed notably around the creations of Étienne Maurice Falconet. The workshops of Tassaert and the Broche brothers helped popularize a type of small-scale gallant marble sculpture that competed with the productions of the Sèvres manufactory and responded to the growing demand for cabinet objects inspired by Falconet's repertoire.
The Broche brothers
The Broche brothers, Joseph (1740–1807) and Jean-Baptiste Ignace (1741–1794), probably from Belfort, belong to this still only partially documented sphere of Parisian production, characterized by a strong stylistic homogeneity. Born in 1740 and 1741 respectively, they may have been the sons of the Czech-born sculptor Jean Joseph Ignace Brosch, who settled in Alsace. Their association is documented as early as 1763 by the engraver Jean-Georges Wille, who noted in his Journal on 14 April: “Two young sculptors, named Broche, brought to my house, to be exhibited, a group of three figures in plaster.” This account suggests an early collaboration between the two brothers, whose works are often mentioned together.
Jean-Baptiste Ignace, the better documented of the two, trained at the schools of the Académie Royale from 1757 to 1762 under the patronage of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. Awarded the Grand Prix of the Académie Royale in 1761, he was received as a master on 16 November 1762 and joined the Académie de Saint-Luc in the same year, where he became assistant professor in 1763 and professor in 1775. His career came to a premature end with his death in 1794. That of his brother Joseph, born in 1740, remains much less well known; the available sources notably mention his bankruptcy and the seizure of his property in 1781. Among the known works of Jean-Baptiste Ignace is the tomb of the Chevalier du Terrail, formerly in the Church of the Theatines on the Quai Malaquais in Paris. Of this monument, only a fragment representing Grief or Mourning Figure survives today, preserved in the musée du Louvre (inv. LP 544). The association of the two brothers in the present Venus on her Shell thus forms part of a body of work whose documentation remains fragmentary, but which attests to their contribution to the diffusion of sculptural models in Paris during the second half of the 18th century.
The model for The Chariot of Venus, a commission from the Abbé Terray
This marble of Venus on her Shell is based on a model designed by Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert (1727–1788) for the now-lost hôtel particulier of the Abbé Terray on the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs.
Born in Antwerp, Tassaert moved to London before settling in Paris, where he studied in the workshop of René-Michel Slodtz. He worked for a wealthy European private clientele before entering the service of Frederick II in Berlin, where he moved in 1775. The Abbé Terray commissioned him for the decoration of his new hôtel particulier, built from 1769 onwards. This residence was constructed in the latest fashion by the architect Antoine Matthieu Le Carpentier (1709–1773). It housed a sculpture gallery, the programme of which was likewise entrusted to him.
The year 1773 marked a turning point in Terray’s career, when he succeeded the Marquis de Marigny as Directeur General of the Bâtiments du Roi. In this capacity, he took part in projects for the restoration of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre and in plans to display the King’s paintings there. Alongside his new responsibilities, he undertook to assemble, for his new hôtel particulier, a collection of monumental modern sculpture bringing together the leading sculptors of his time, among them Clodion, Pajou, Pigalle, Mouchy, Lecomte, Caffieri and Tassaert. More patron than collector, Terray favoured contemporary creations over works by previous generations. Through both the subjects addressed and the choice of artists he commissioned, Terray’s patronage reflects not only his personal ambitions but also his position within the royal administration and the artistic prosperity of the Kingdom of France.
Archival sources, notably a declaration of 1773 studied by Guilhem Scherf, attest to the presence of a group representing Venus on her Shell, for which the inventory drawn up after the death of the Abbé Terray provides a detailed description. The group was paired with another, Arion Playing the Lyre, executed by Charles-Antoine Bridan and visible in Jean-Laurent Mosnier’s portrait of the sculptor (École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, inv. MU 1502). Tassaert’s Venus on her Shell and Charles-Antoine Bridan’s Arion Playing the Lyre were commissioned in the context of the furnishing of Terray’s hôtel particulier, without, however, belonging to the programme devised for the sculpture gallery itself. Their commission constitutes one of the few documented examples that can be attributed with certainty to the intermediary role played by the architect Antoine Matthieu Le Carpentier. Sources further attest that Terray commissioned from Tassaert a copy of Falconet’s Bather, reflecting the contemporary taste for the adaptation of celebrated sculptural models.
Signed Broche and dated 1776, the present version forms part of this practice and faithfully reproduces Tassaert’s composition, whose original model has not been located today.
The success of the model
The composition adopted by Broche in 1776 belongs to a group of versions now partly dispersed or lost, the identification of which allows a better understanding of the diffusion of Tassaert’s model. A version by the sculptor Simon Georges Joseph de Pfaffenhoven, known as Pfaff (1715–1784), was kept at Monbijou Palace in Berlin, where it still survived around 1930. It was most likely destroyed during the Second World War.
A life-size plaster of the same composition was also formerly situated in the garden of the Folie Saint-James (Neuilly), before being acquired by Robert de Montesquiou around 1906 for his Pavillon des Muses, where it remained.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington preserves a marble group of Venus on the Shell, now attributed to Étienne Maurice Falconet (inv. A1625), whose subject and composition are comparable to Tassaert’s model, although it differs notably in the absence of the shells and Venus’s nudity. Initially attributed to Bouchardon, then successively to Pajou and today to Falconet, Guilhem Scherf has proposed associating it with Tassaert’s œuvre; however, its stylistic ambiguity led Charles Avery, among others, to question its authenticity as an 18th century work, as the possibility of an early 19th century pastiche cannot be ruled out.
Another version, whose present whereabouts are unknown, appears to have belonged to the fermier général Étienne Michel Bouret before passing to the Hôtel de Villemorien, where in 1789 it was described as “a marble group in a shell representing Venus and two lovers”. Dufort de Cheverny referred to it in his Mémoires, specifying that the figure was nude and represented the portrait of a lady from Bouret’s circle.
Henri Viguier, collector and director of the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville
The inclusion of our marble in the sale of the Viguier collection (Ader and Picard, 21 March 1968, lot 38) attests to its place within one of the major private collections of 18th century art assembled during the 20th century. Henry Viguier (1877–1967), grandson of François-Xavier Ruel, founder of the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville (BHV), succeeded to the leadership of the family business and oversaw its development, notably its flotation on the stock exchange in 1960. Together with his wife Renée, he assembled a collection of 18th century art and furniture, a significant part of which was installed at the Château de Bouges, known as the “Petit Trianon du Berry”, acquired by the couple in 1917. Fitted out from 1919 onwards, the residence became an expression of their taste for the decorative arts and the French art of living.
The ensemble preserved at Bouges was bequeathed to the Caisse nationale des monuments historiques in 1956, while some of their possessions were dispersed at the 1968 auction sale. Although the château now stands as the most celebrated testament to their collection, the Viguier also owned several other residences, notably the Manoir de Beuzeval in Houlgate and a villa in Grasse. Our group was displayed in their Parisian hôtel particulier on Villa Saïd. Situated at the entrance to this private street extending from the upper end of Avenue Foch, the substantial residence stood alongside the home of banker and industrialist Victor Lyon (1878-1963) at No. 72 Avenue Foch, as well as those of Paul Dalloz and Anatole France on Villa Saïd itself. The house appears in a photograph from the Roger-Viollet collection (inv. 1964-3) but was unfortunately demolished shortly after the mid-20th century.
Presentado por
Hippolyte de la Féronnière
Head of European Furniture Department