Lot Essay
Born in Anvers, Jean-Joseph Jaquet (d. 1898) studied in his home town before moving on to the Academy in Brussels and later serving his apprenticeship in the studio of Guillaume Geefs (d. 1883). He first exhibited at the Brussels Salon in 1842, showing religious busts and figures which were well-received by the public and critics. Three years later, a total of eleven works were exhibited, establishing Jaquet as a high calibre sculptor and resulting in numerous commissions both by the state and private individuals. The first such commission was the marble version of the present work, L'Age d'Or, which in its plaster model form was the sensation of the Salon of 1851. The marble is now in the collection of the Musée Royale de Beaux Arts in Brussels. Such was the popularity of Jaquet's prolific oeuvre that more than fifty of his works were edited in bronze, mostly by the best-known French foundries. No other life-size bronze casts of L'Age d'Or are known to exist.