Bronze with brownish-black patina; marble (piedouches).
Busts: H. 44 cm. (16.14 in.); L. 33 cm. (12.59 in.).
Piedouches: H. 13 cm. (5 1/8 in.). Total height: 57 cm. (22 3/8 in.).
PROVENANCE: collection of Louis-Antoine Crozat (1699-1770), Baron de Thiers, in his private mansion on the Place Vendôme, the Hôtel d’Evreux, n°. 19; lot n°. 355 of his post-mortem inventory drawn up on 22nd December 1770, seven days after his death; auction of the “cabinet de feu M. Crozat, Baron de Thiers” by Pierre Remy (1715 (?)-1797 (? )), Paris, between 26th February and 27th March 1772, lot n°. 920; collection of Claude-Pierre-Maximilien de Radix de Sainte-Foy (1736-1810), trésorier de la Marine in 1764, and superintendent of the Comte d’Artois, its auction in Paris by Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun (1748-1813), 22nd April 1782 & following days, lot n°. 28; bought at the auction by Jacques Langlier or Lenglier (1730? -181?), picture dealer and expert, then resold by Lebrun, 3 December 1782, lot n°. 131; acquired at the auction by Pierre-François Basan (1723-1797), engraver, publisher and print dealer;possibly the collection of Baron Pieter Nicolaas Van Hoorn Van Vlooswijck (1742-1809), in his hôtel located at 34 rue d’Enfer, Paris; auctioned in situ in Paris by Lebrun,22nd November 1809, lot n°. 31.
LITERATURE on Robert Le Lorrain: Michèle Beaulieu, Robert Le Lorrain, 1666-1743, Paris, Arthena, 1982; Guilhem Scherf, “Robert Le Lorrain”, Bronzes français de la Renaissance au Siècle des lumières, Geneviève Bresc-Bautier & Guilhem Scherf (eds.), Paris, 2008, p. 416.
Two bronze busts, dated circa 1695-1705, very finely chiselled and with a beautiful brownish-black patina, one representing the Venus de’ Medici, and the second a Faun with a particularly expressive, smiling face and a headdress enhanced by a pine wreath.
To the best of our knowledge, the two busts of the baron de Thiers are the only instances of the pairing of the bust of the Venus de’ Medici with that of the Faun that we have listed in eighteenth-century auction catalogues.
