A MARBLE BUST OF EDOUARD COLBERT, MARQUIS DE CILLACERF

AFTER MARTIN VAN DER BOGAERT, CALLED DESJARDINS

Details

A MARBLE BUST OF EDOUARD COLBERT, MARQUIS DE CILLACERF
After Martin van der Bogaert, called Desjardins
The figure wearing an elaborate perruque, a lace jabot and a chemise, an embroidered brocade jacket, inscribed M. DESJARDINS/1670 to the reverse
41in. (104cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Christie's New York, 20 November 1982, lot 250 ($16,500, including premium).

Literature

François Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th Centuries: The Reign of Louis XIV, London, 1977, vol. I p. 260.

Sale room notice

The title should read Villacerf, not Cillacerf.

Lot Essay

Desjardins sculpted the portrait of Edouard Colbert, Marquis de Villacerf, Sûrintendat des Bâtiments to Louis XIV, towards the end of his career. Antoher version of this subject by Desjardins is in the Louvre and has been dated circa 1693. As Desjardins was not admitted to the Royal Academy until 1671, it is doubtful that the date on the present marble can be correct.

Desjardin's major commissions, the Louis XIV equestrian monuments (Place des Victoires, Paris, Lyon and Aix), as well as the majority of his oeuvre were destroyed during the French Revolution.

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