Lot 59: ALFRED-EMILIEN, COMTE DE NIEUWERKERKE FRENCH, 1811-1892

signed and dated: Par le C^te de Nieuwerkerke 1858. inscribed fondu par E. Quesnel and with the editors inscription Susse frêres editeurs place de la bourse

bronze, rich dark brown patina

LA MORT DE DUC DE CLARENCE (THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE)

59.5 by 61.5cm., 23 3/8 by 24 1/4 in.

PROVENANCE
Susse Fères collection

Nieuwerkerke's celebrated combat group is a seminal example of the style troubadour which flourished from the early nineteenth century and was in vogue until the Revolution of 1848. It appealed to admirers of Walter Scott and on a more direct level it could be viewed as a simple romantic chivalric joust between Deux Chevaliers combattant, the title used by the Susse foundry who acquired the casting rights in 1838 and kept it in their catalogue until 1875. It was an early work for the Count, who had not yet started to exhibit at the Salon: it is listed in Lami as his first work under the title Combat de deux chevaliers au XV^e siècle, with the additional information that it had been 'exposé chez Susse en 1839'.

The story of the Combat is fully explained in the lengthy inscription included on the front and back of the base and beginning around the rim with the lines Mort de Monseigneur le Duc de Clarence Frère du Roi Anglois Henri V Occis au combat ou vieil-Beauge par Garin de Fontaine Chevalier dans l'ost de Monseigneur le Dauphin (chronique d'Arion)... This inscription recounts the fleeting moment captured in the sculpture when Thomas of Clarence, having been touched by the lance of his adversary Garin de Fontaine, loses his balance and falls from his horse.

RELATED LITERATURE Cadet pp.16-18; Lami vol.5, p.7; Kjellberg p.523