Lot Essay
This drawing is preparatory for the figure of the River Marne on the right-hand side of the Fontaine de Grenelle (fig. 1), Paris.
In 1739 the échevins of Paris decided to buy a piece of land near the rue de Grenelle to build a fountain. Edmé Bouchardon was awarded the commission, and the project for the central part of the fountain was signed in March 1739. It was later decided to extend the fountain on both sides.
The central group consists of an allegorical statue of Paris with the Rivers Seine and Marne on each side, each of these figures measures seven foot long. The work began in 1739 and was finished six years later, but as early as 1740 Bouchardon exhibited three plaster models of the main figures at the Salon.
The present drawing is preparatory for the allegorical figure of the Marne reclining to the right, in Paris. Numerous preparatory drawings for the fountain are in the Louvre, three of which also relate to the River Marne, J. Guiffrey and P. Marcel, Inventaire général des dessins du Musée du Louvre et du Musée de Versailles, Paris, 1908, II, no. 870-2, illustrated. These show the same model from a variety of angles including a frontal view similar to the present drawing.
The fountain was praised by critics who ranked it second in Paris only to the Fontaine des Innocents by Jean Goujon. Both Voltaire and Diderot, however, criticized its lack of water. Voltaire in a letter to Comte de Caylus wrote in 1739: 'je ne doute pas que Bouchardon ne fasse un beau morceau d'architecture, mais qu'est ce qu'une fontaine qui n'aurait que deux robinets, où les porteurs d'eau viendront remplir leurs seaux ?' (I have no doubt that Bouchardon will create a beautiful piece of architecture, but can a fountain have only two taps, for the water-carriers to fill their buckets from?).
From the fountain as a whole the figure of the Marne was the element most appreciated by the critics. Mariette, a friend of Bouchardon, praised the Marne for 'La souplesse et le beau coulant de ses contours', Lettres de M. M* à un ami de province au sujet de la nouvelle fontaine de la rue de Grenelle, aux Fauxbourg St Germain des Prez, Paris , 1746. Similarly Baillet de Saint Julien in his Lettre sur la Peinture et le Sculpture of 1748 characterized the pose of the Marne as particularly graceful, A. Roserot, Edmé Bouchardon, Paris, 1910, p. 51-68.
A counterproof in red chalk of a design for La fontaine Grenelle which belonged to Mariette is now in the Prat collection, P. Rosenberg, De main de maître, Paris, 1990, pp. 124-5, no. 45, illustrated
In 1739 the échevins of Paris decided to buy a piece of land near the rue de Grenelle to build a fountain. Edmé Bouchardon was awarded the commission, and the project for the central part of the fountain was signed in March 1739. It was later decided to extend the fountain on both sides.
The central group consists of an allegorical statue of Paris with the Rivers Seine and Marne on each side, each of these figures measures seven foot long. The work began in 1739 and was finished six years later, but as early as 1740 Bouchardon exhibited three plaster models of the main figures at the Salon.
The present drawing is preparatory for the allegorical figure of the Marne reclining to the right, in Paris. Numerous preparatory drawings for the fountain are in the Louvre, three of which also relate to the River Marne, J. Guiffrey and P. Marcel, Inventaire général des dessins du Musée du Louvre et du Musée de Versailles, Paris, 1908, II, no. 870-2, illustrated. These show the same model from a variety of angles including a frontal view similar to the present drawing.
The fountain was praised by critics who ranked it second in Paris only to the Fontaine des Innocents by Jean Goujon. Both Voltaire and Diderot, however, criticized its lack of water. Voltaire in a letter to Comte de Caylus wrote in 1739: 'je ne doute pas que Bouchardon ne fasse un beau morceau d'architecture, mais qu'est ce qu'une fontaine qui n'aurait que deux robinets, où les porteurs d'eau viendront remplir leurs seaux ?' (I have no doubt that Bouchardon will create a beautiful piece of architecture, but can a fountain have only two taps, for the water-carriers to fill their buckets from?).
From the fountain as a whole the figure of the Marne was the element most appreciated by the critics. Mariette, a friend of Bouchardon, praised the Marne for 'La souplesse et le beau coulant de ses contours', Lettres de M. M* à un ami de province au sujet de la nouvelle fontaine de la rue de Grenelle, aux Fauxbourg St Germain des Prez, Paris , 1746. Similarly Baillet de Saint Julien in his Lettre sur la Peinture et le Sculpture of 1748 characterized the pose of the Marne as particularly graceful, A. Roserot, Edmé Bouchardon, Paris, 1910, p. 51-68.
A counterproof in red chalk of a design for La fontaine Grenelle which belonged to Mariette is now in the Prat collection, P. Rosenberg, De main de maître, Paris, 1990, pp. 124-5, no. 45, illustrated