Literature
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-neuvième siècle, Paris, 1916, vol. II, p. 242.
P. Ward-Jackson, 'A.E. Carrier-Belleuse, J.-J. Feuchère and the Sutherlands’, The Burlington Magazine, March 1985, p. 147.
P. Ward-Jackson, 'Augustin Dumont’s Trentham 'Genius of Liberty’ rediscovered,’ The Burlington Magazine, April 2012, pp. 241-247.
Notes
The political upheaval of early 19th century France resulted in some of the most unique creations in the history of French sculpture, including Augustin-Alexandre Dumont’s colossal Génie de la Liberté surmounting the Colonne de Juillet in Paris. Built in commemoration of the Revolution of 1830 which overthrew the final Bourbon monarch and led to the creation of the July Monarchy, this immense column and its winged figure became synonymous with the regime, and have since come to define Paris’ iconic Place de la Bastille. The present lot is an exceptionally rare reduction of Dumont’s masterpiece above the iconic Parisian square, shown at the Salon of 1836 and later installed at the magnificent country house of the Duke of Sutherland, Trentham Hall in Staffordshire.
'LE GÉNIE DE LA BASTILLE’
The Place de la Bastille in central Paris holds an important place in French history. On 14 July 1789, the infamous prison that stood on the site was stormed in one of the first stirrings of the French Revolution. Over the course of the subsequent decades, the ever-changing regimes of the late 18th and early 19th centuries used the square for public manifestations and drafted elaborate plans for monuments as each hastened to visually manifest its authority. The first project for a memorial column – in the tradition of Trajan’s Column in Rome – was proposed in 1790, with a figure of liberty at its summit. The cornerstone for that structure was laid in 1792, but it was never completed. This plan was followed by the fountain of 1793, and the famed sculpture of an Elephant unveiled in 1817.
Following the Revolution of 27-29 July 1830 – known as les Trois Glorieuses – which overthrew Charles X, King Louis-Philippe decreed on 6 July 1831 that a column-form structure would be built in the square as a monument to the victims of the uprising of the previous year. In 1833, architect Jean-Antoine Alavoine (1778-1834) began work on the column which would ultimately be finished under the guidance of his confrère, Louis Duc (1802-1879), in 1840. Their joint realization is a Corinthian column with a three-part stem – a reference to the three days of revolution of 1830 – that measures nearly 52 meters high. Its base is set with animalier reliefs by the famed sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875) and it is applied with the names of the victims of the Revolution.
Though it was not originally conceived for the summit of the Colonne de Juillet, Dumont’s Génie de la Liberté was selected as the crowning feature for the structure, likely through the influence of Adolphe Thiers (1797-1883), ministre des Travaux publics et du Commerce. Dumont began work on the model in 1833 and showed a bronze edition – the present lot – at the Salon of 1836 (no. 1909). A full-scale model – measuring four meters high – was then cast by Soyer et Ingé to be placed atop the Colonne de Juillet, which was inaugurated in 1840. Representing a winged allegorical figure of liberty astride the globe, the Génie has his arms outstretched in an expression of freedom from tyranny. A five-point star of inspiration appears above his head. In his right hand, he carries a torch illuminating the way forward, while in his left, he lifts a broken chain, emblematic of the end of imprisonment.
In the French artistic tradition, allegories are nearly always represented as female. Dumont’s choice of a male allegory to represent liberty is, therefore, very unusual, especially for the early 19th century. This could be seen as an effort to distinguish the freedoms brought about by the July Revolution as different from those fraught from the French Revolution, during which artistic representations of liberty nearly always took the form of a woman wearing a Phrygian cap. With its exceptional movement, Dumont’s alighting figure makes direct reference to Giambologna’s (c. 1529-1608) celebrated Mercury (1580). The sculptor may also have been influenced by Jean-Baptiste Regnault’s (1754-1829) painting, The Genius of France between Liberty and Death (1795), which depicts a similar nude allegorical figure with arms outstretched and a flame above his head, and which is today in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg. Finally, Dumont is thought to have been inspired by the gestures of the Pope during a pontifical blessing he witnessed at St. Peter’s Basilica. Owing to its visibility and popularity, the Génie would ultimately become known as the ‘Génie de la Bastille,’ and thanks to its elevated location and brightly gilded surface, it is still visible throughout the City of Lights today.
FROM PARIS TO STAFFORDSHIRE
In the early 19th century, the 2nd Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, George Granville Leveson Grower and Harriet Howard – the former owners of the present lot – amassed an immense fortune largely through advantageous marriages. They lived between several grand properties including Trentham Hall in Staffordshire, Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire, Dunrobin Castle in Sutherland and Stafford (today Lancaster) House in London. In the 1830s, the couple traveled throughout Europe assembling an important collection of works of art. From 1835 to 1837, they made annual visits to Paris, during which they became enthralled with the innovative sculptural output of contemporary artists in the French capital. During this period, they acquired the present sculpture.
In his definitive study of the present bronze, Philip Ward-Jackson states that this acquisition took place circa 1837 (P. Ward-Jackson, 'Augustin Dumont’s Trentham 'Genius of Liberty’ rediscovered,’ The Burlington Magazine, April 2012, p. 243). Ward-Jackson further suggests that Adolphie Thiers – who likely influenced the selection of Dumont’s full-scale work for the Colonne de Juillet – also advised the Sutherlands in their purchase (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 243). The couple visited the Soyer et Ingé foundry while in Paris, and it is possible that they acquired the present bronze directly from them (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 246).
Concurrent to this purchase, the Sutherlands undertook a significant renovation and expansion campaign at Trentham Hall in Staffordshire, which saw their country home vastly expanded through the addition of an entrance courtyard, a wing of family apartments and an immense central tower all designed by Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860). The construction took place in two phases: from 1830 to 1840 and from 1840 to 1849. It was during the second phase that the Sutherlands’ bronze by Dumont was installed on the clock tower at Trentham Hall (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 247).
Though the exact dates of the purchase and transport of the bronze from Paris to Staffordshire remain unclear, Ward-Jackson established that its foundry and restoration inscriptions from 1835 and 1846 respectively, clarify the circumstances of its installation at Trentham (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 247). Based on both archival documents and repaired incisions to the present bronze, it appears that the firm Hatfield inserted iron reinforcements to the interior of the figure shortly after its arrival in Staffordshire in order to stabilize it for its wind-swept position atop the clock tower (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 247). In 1846, the Sutherlands placed the present bronze atop Trentham Hall where it remained for several decades and was identified in guidebooks for the region (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 247). Smitten with their bronze, the Sutherlands placed a later copy of the Génie atop the clock tower at another one of their residences, Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire, in 1861.
The Sutherlands were eventually forced to leave Trentham Hall due to the industrial pollution of the nearby River Trent. However, the Génie remained in place at the house, even after the majority of it was demolished. A 1912 photograph of the house shows the majority of the residence in ruins, with the bronze still in place atop the clock tower (Ward-Jackson, op. cit., p. 247). Following this early 20th century photograph, little is known about the bronze’s whereabouts until it emerged in a sale in 2005 from which it entered the collection of Piraneseum, a collection of Grand Tour souvenirs including Italian paintings, works on paper, architectural models and bronzes such as the present work.
AUGUSTIN-ALEXANDRE DUMONT: A REVOLUTIONARY ARTIST
Issued from an important family of artists, Augustin-Alexandre Dumont was born in Pavillon du Midi at the Louvre, where his parents were in residence. Dumont trained in the atelier of sculptor Pierre Cartellier (1757-1831) and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 1823, he was awarded the Prix de Rome and subsequently spent three years in the Eternal City, which exerted an immense influence on his future work. Upon his return to France, Dumont capitalized on the burgeoning demands for sculpture in the July Monarchy. He received important commissions for public monuments including sculptures of Louis Philippe for Versailles (1838) and Nicolas Poussin for the French Institute (1836). In this same period, Dumont also completed a sculpture of Saint Cecilia the façade of the Eglise de la Madeline in Paris (1840) as well as the figure of Napoleon in the guise of Caesar atop the Colonne de la Grande Armée in the Place Vendôme in Paris (1863).
The Génie de la Liberté, however, remains his most famous work. In a departure from the 19th century practice of reproducing celebrated models, decidedly few versions of the Génie are known. In addition to the full-scale bronze atop the Colonne de Juillet, the present lot and the Sutherlands’ later copy for Cliveden House, a plaster version measuring half the size of the final command for the Place de la Bastille is in the musée de Semur-en-Auxois. Finally, following the artist’s death, and likely owing to the model’s popularity, a replica in bronze was ordered for the Louvre in 1885, which was created from the aforementioned plaster (R.F. 680).
In his homage at Dumont’s funeral, M. Guillaume, President of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, judged the Génie to be one of the most beautiful works produced in the era, and an important example for future artists : 'Par la vérité et par la noblesse des formes qu’elle présente, cette figure est une des plus belles qu’ait produites l’art contemporain…On put dire que c’est un chef-d’œuvre et peut-être le chef-d’œuvre du maître…Je n’hésite pas à le dire: à ce titre, elle mériterait d’être fondue en bronze pour occuper au Louvre la place qui lui est due, ou pur être donnée comme exemple à l’école des Beaux-Arts” (cited in G. Vattier, Augustin Dumont, Paris, 1885, p. 75). Dumont’s powerful figure still towers over the Place de la Bastille and has since taken pride of place in the galleries of the Louvre. The present bronze with its distinguished aristocratic provenance further manifests the enduring influence and appeal of this unique zenith of French sculpture.
