Lot 93: A PLASTER FIGURE OF NARCISSUS

BY PIERRE-NICOLAS BEAUVALLET (1750-1818), 1812 On an integrally cast naturalistic base covered in plants and small animals; the surface punctuated with pointing marks. Minor damages and restorations. 59 in. (150 cm.) high LITERATURE C.P. Landon, Annale du mus‚e et de l'‚cole moderne des Beaux-Arts, Salon de 1812, Paris, 1812, p. 53, pl. 35 (where it is recorded in the form of an engraving). COMPARATIVE LITERATURE: Karlsruhe, Prinz-Max-Palais, Skulptur aus dem Louvre - 89 Werke des franz”sischen Klassizismus, 1770-1830, 24 Jun.- 17 Sept. 1989, pp. 72-73, no. 19. EXHIBITION Paris Salon of 1812, no. 1001 (described as 'Une statue de Narcisse se voyant pour la premiŠre fois dans le cristal des eaux, il ‚prouve la surprise et le plaisir que lui cause sa beaut‚') NOTES Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet (1750-1818) was a pupil of Pajou, although he was later to be heavily influenced by the idealised neo-classicism of the Italian master, Antonio Canova. Among other commissions, he is known to have worked on the decoration of the chƒteau de CompiŠgne. Today, Beauvallet is best known for his marble figure of Suzanne au bain, now housed in the Louvre (for a discussion of this marble, see Karlsruhe, loc. cit. ). The plaster of the Suzanne was exhibited in the Salon of 1810, and the marble was exhibited in 1814. It was sent in 1816 to the chƒteau de Rambouillet, where it was placed in a grotto setting in the Laiterie de la Reine . The present figure of Narcissus, which was exhibited in the Salon of 1812 under the number 1001 (and recorded in the form of an engraving of that year - see Landon, loc. cit. ), seems originally to have been created as a pendant to the Suzanne. A note in an inventory currently in the archives of the sculpture department at the Louvre, shows that on 10 March 1812, 8600 francs were allocated to Beauvallet 'pour executer en marbre le modŠle de sa jolie statue de Narcisse'. The marble, which was exhibited in 1817 (as number 793) was destined to join the Suzanne at the chƒteau de Rambouillet but this appears never to have happened. The current location of the marble Narcissus is unknown. The present plaster, which has the pointing marks necessary for transferring the composition into marble, is therefore the only extant version of this important work by Beauvallet. The graceful depiction of the youth Narcissus, as he gazes at his own beautiful reflection in the water below, mirrors the Suzanne, both in the pose of the figure and in the sense of arrested movement. Together they illustrate Beauvallet's naturalistic approach to the prevailing influence of neo-classicism.