Lot Essay
Godecharle was born in Brussels and studied under several minor masters before joining the workshop of Laurent Delvaux, who in 1769 obtained for him a grant from the government of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Godecharle used this subsidy to pursue his studies in Paris, where his progress was supervised by Pigalle and Tassaert. During his stay in the French capital, he assimilated the neoclassical aesthetic of the most dynamic sculptors of the time, Houdon and Clodion.
Between 1775 and 1777 Godecharle assisted Tassaert in Berlin at the court of Frederick the Great, carving mainly portraits of Prussian generals. By 1778 he was employed in London, and from there he traveled to Rome, where he completed his training, gaining first prize from the Academy of St. Luke. Returning to Brussels in 1779, he inaugurated his career as a master sculptor by executing the pediments of the Palace of the Sovereign Council of Brabant (now the Palais de la Nation).
Subsequently commissioned to decorate the summer residence of the Austrian governers of the Low Countries, Maria Christina, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, and Duke Albert of Saxony, at Laeken near Brussels (now the Royal Castle), Godecharle designed mythological sculptures and reliefs for the front and garden facades following the designs of the architect Charles de Wailly (1730-1809). The influence of the French Rococo sculpture that he had seen while in Paris, namely the works of Houdon, Pigalle and Tassaert, is strongly evident in the near life-size sculpture for the Laeken residence.
The present figure of Cupid is depicted as the figure furthest to the left in the second of de Wailly's four elevations for the garden facade of the chteau (Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, b.19.108). The figures intended to surmount this scheme celebrated the themes of fidelity, love and peace. As this plan was later rejected in 1807, and as the entire chteau at Laeken was gutted in a fire during 1890, it is difficult to reconcile the provenance to Laeken that has traditionally been given this sculpture.
Between 1775 and 1777 Godecharle assisted Tassaert in Berlin at the court of Frederick the Great, carving mainly portraits of Prussian generals. By 1778 he was employed in London, and from there he traveled to Rome, where he completed his training, gaining first prize from the Academy of St. Luke. Returning to Brussels in 1779, he inaugurated his career as a master sculptor by executing the pediments of the Palace of the Sovereign Council of Brabant (now the Palais de la Nation).
Subsequently commissioned to decorate the summer residence of the Austrian governers of the Low Countries, Maria Christina, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, and Duke Albert of Saxony, at Laeken near Brussels (now the Royal Castle), Godecharle designed mythological sculptures and reliefs for the front and garden facades following the designs of the architect Charles de Wailly (1730-1809). The influence of the French Rococo sculpture that he had seen while in Paris, namely the works of Houdon, Pigalle and Tassaert, is strongly evident in the near life-size sculpture for the Laeken residence.
The present figure of Cupid is depicted as the figure furthest to the left in the second of de Wailly's four elevations for the garden facade of the chteau (Vienna, sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, b.19.108). The figures intended to surmount this scheme celebrated the themes of fidelity, love and peace. As this plan was later rejected in 1807, and as the entire chteau at Laeken was gutted in a fire during 1890, it is difficult to reconcile the provenance to Laeken that has traditionally been given this sculpture.