Lot Essay
Little is known of Claude Munier, who from the inscription on this bust would appear to have been a native of Conté. It is possible that he can be identified with the Monier recorded by S. Lami (S.Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'Ecole Français au dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1911, vol.II p. 170) as a sculptor active in Aix-en-Provence during the latter 18th Century who, on 25 May 1785, was contracted to execute the plaster decorations for the new Palace at Aix under the direction of Le Doux.
The identification of the sitter is based on the portrait of Antoine Renon by Cochin of 1782, which was engraved by Miger (J.Bottineau, 'La Jeunesse de Pierre Guérin étude de quelques dessins', Revue du Louvre, 5/6, 1989, p. 309, n. 19, fig. 18). Born in Paris in 1731, Renon was both a writer and an artist, having trained with Pierre and de Vien. Following a period in Rome, he was employed as Court Painter to Stanislaus I Leszczynski at Lunéville from 1760-1766. Acknowledged by the Académie Royale in 1766, he became an Académicien in 1781 and on 1 May 1793, was appointed Premier secrétaire perpétual de l'Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts, a post he retained until his death in 1806.
The identification of the sitter is based on the portrait of Antoine Renon by Cochin of 1782, which was engraved by Miger (J.Bottineau, 'La Jeunesse de Pierre Guérin étude de quelques dessins', Revue du Louvre, 5/6, 1989, p. 309, n. 19, fig. 18). Born in Paris in 1731, Renon was both a writer and an artist, having trained with Pierre and de Vien. Following a period in Rome, he was employed as Court Painter to Stanislaus I Leszczynski at Lunéville from 1760-1766. Acknowledged by the Académie Royale in 1766, he became an Académicien in 1781 and on 1 May 1793, was appointed Premier secrétaire perpétual de l'Ecole nationale des Beaux-Arts, a post he retained until his death in 1806.