Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
A. Storelli, Jean-Baptiste Nini, Sa Vie - son oeuvre, 1717-1786, Tours, 1896, pp. 77-78, no. XXXIV (Suzanne de Jarente de la Reynire and pp. 47-48, nos. XI, XII (ecclesiastic)
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'cole Franaise au dix-huitieme Sicle, Paris, 1911, vol. 2, p. 190 (for the positive relief of Suzanne Jarente de la Reynire resulting from a mould such as this: four examples and one variant lacking the inscriptions and another lacking the ruffles crossed on her bosom are listed)
L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, London, 1909, pp. 271 (ill.), 273 (Suzanne de Jarente de la Reynire)
Suzanne de Jarente de la Reynire was born in 1736 into an old, but impoverished, noble family of Provence and was niece of a bishop of Orlans. Intelligent, vivacious and pretty, she married Grimod de la Reynire, wealthy son of the Postmaster General of France, and went to live with him in Paris. There she regularly held a salon, which was frequented by musicians, painters and writers. She is frequently mentioned in the Souvenirs of Mme Vige-Lebrun and the Correspondance of Mme du Deffand, and the letters of the Comtesse of Sabran. During the Revolution she was imprisoned, only briefly, but it ruined her completely, and she died in 1815. Nini produced two other versions of the portrait, one without the encircling inscription and border; and the other without the strip of ruched lawn (Storelli, nos. XXXV, XXXVI).
Another example of the present mould depicting an ecclesiastic is in the Blois Museum and is written on the back 'l'Abb Joulin, cur de Chaumont-sur-Loire', which Storelli regarded as unlikely, for Nini came to work in Tours only eight years later, in 1772. However, this line of argument is not necessarily logical and the identification should be maintained until and if another securer one is reached.
A. Storelli, Jean-Baptiste Nini, Sa Vie - son oeuvre, 1717-1786, Tours, 1896, pp. 77-78, no. XXXIV (Suzanne de Jarente de la Reynire and pp. 47-48, nos. XI, XII (ecclesiastic)
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'cole Franaise au dix-huitieme Sicle, Paris, 1911, vol. 2, p. 190 (for the positive relief of Suzanne Jarente de la Reynire resulting from a mould such as this: four examples and one variant lacking the inscriptions and another lacking the ruffles crossed on her bosom are listed)
L. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, London, 1909, pp. 271 (ill.), 273 (Suzanne de Jarente de la Reynire)
Suzanne de Jarente de la Reynire was born in 1736 into an old, but impoverished, noble family of Provence and was niece of a bishop of Orlans. Intelligent, vivacious and pretty, she married Grimod de la Reynire, wealthy son of the Postmaster General of France, and went to live with him in Paris. There she regularly held a salon, which was frequented by musicians, painters and writers. She is frequently mentioned in the Souvenirs of Mme Vige-Lebrun and the Correspondance of Mme du Deffand, and the letters of the Comtesse of Sabran. During the Revolution she was imprisoned, only briefly, but it ruined her completely, and she died in 1815. Nini produced two other versions of the portrait, one without the encircling inscription and border; and the other without the strip of ruched lawn (Storelli, nos. XXXV, XXXVI).
Another example of the present mould depicting an ecclesiastic is in the Blois Museum and is written on the back 'l'Abb Joulin, cur de Chaumont-sur-Loire', which Storelli regarded as unlikely, for Nini came to work in Tours only eight years later, in 1772. However, this line of argument is not necessarily logical and the identification should be maintained until and if another securer one is reached.