France, 19th century, after Jean-Baptiste Pigalle - Lot 196

France, 19th century, after Jean-Baptiste Pigalle Girl with bird and apple white marble; signed and dated PIGALLE. 1784 44 cm x 33 cm x 37 cm (small dents and restorations to feet) In 1749, Jean Pâris de Montmartel (1690-1766), state financier and godfather to Madame de Pompadour, commissioned Pigalle to paint a portrait of his only son, Armand-Louis Joseph Pâris de Montmartel (1748-1781), the future Marquis de Brunoy, who was only one year old at the time. The marble of L'Enfant à la cage was exhibited at the Salon in 1750 (Musée du Louvre, inv. n° RF 654). Pigalle purchased the sculpture at the Marquis de Brunoy's sale in 1776, and thirty-five years later created its counterpart, La Fillette à l'oiseau et à la pomme (Louvre, inv. no. RF1511): I saw him undertake and succeed in making a counterpart to this Child with a Cage", wrote Pigalle's biographer Mopinot in 1786, who witnessed the evolution of the subject in the artist's work. Less famous than l'Enfant à la cage, whose value was estimated to be twice as high at the time, the statuette of the little girl stands out for its realism: the folds in the neck, the dimples in the loins, the chubby legs and a smile of wonder. The work is captivating for the quality of its modeling, its simplicity and the sincerity of its execution. The bird and the apple, both symbolic attributes, portray a childlike playfulness that nuances the moral or saucy reading that might have been drawn from them. Fillette à l'oiseau et à la pomme testifies to Pigalle's renewed creative energy in the last years of his life, no doubt driven by a desire to prove to his detractors that his genius had lost none of its vigor. Apart from the autograph marble in the Louvre, according to Gaborit, only two other versions in the artist's own hand are known, one in an English private collection, the other in a Parisian collection, acquired at the Valpinçon sale, March 7 1881, lot 58 (cf. J.R. Gaborit, op.cit.p. 54). The marble presented here is an attractive late version, executed by a follower of Pigalle in the 19th century, similar to the Fillette à l'oiseau in the Carouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (inv. no. 353). Bibliographical references A.-R. Mopinot de La Chapotte, Eloge historique de Pigal, célèbre sculpteur suivi d'un mémoire sur la sculpture en France, London, Paris (?), 1786, p. 11. S. Rocheblave, 'L'Enfant à l'oiseau de Pigalle au musée du Louvre', in Les Musées de France, 1911, pp. 50 - 52. L. Réau, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, Paris, 1950, pp. 106-107, cat. no. 37. J.-R. Gaborit, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. Sculptures du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1985, pp. 52 - 55. M. Bückling (ed.), Liaisons dangereuses, Gefährliche Liebschaften. Die Kunst des französischen Rokoko, cat. exp. Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt am Main, 2015, pp. 185-199, 200, 202, fig. 96, and pp. 202-203, no. 53. G. Scherf, 'Le portrait sculpté d'enfant: un genre nouveau en France au XVIIIe siècle', Péristyles. Actes du colloque L'enfant dans la ville et dans l'art au XVIIIe siècle, no. 26, 2005, pp. 89-98, pp. 90-91.