Lot 60: Attributed Jean Claude Francois Joseph Rosset, known as Rosset père (French, 1706-1786): A pair of carved Carrara marble busts of the Baron de Montesquieu and his wife Jeanne Lartique

Attributed Jean Claude Francois Joseph Rosset, known as Rosset père (French, 1706-1786): A pair of carved Carrara marble busts of the Baron de Montesquieu and his wife Jeanne Lartique
the sitters looking to dexter and sinister, both clad in loose classical style drapery, Madam de Montesquieu wearing a draped scarf about her head, raised on integral circular socles, 24.7 and 26.7cm high (2)

Provenance:Acquired by a private UK collector, Sotheby's, London, 4 July 1996, European and Works of Art from the Collection formed by the British Rail Pensions Fund, lot 84.Exhibited:Museum of San Antonio, Texas.Literature:U. Fischer, Une Famille des Sculpteurs et Peintres Courtois: Les Rosset, 1919, Paris.Perhaps remembered for his greatest literary work 'Esprit de Lois' (published 1784) and as one of the key figures of the French Enlightenment, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was a man of letters and one of the foremost philosophers of his day.Joseph Rosset was the eldest member of what became a family dynasty of sculptors. Originating from St Claude in Eastern France, he and his sons, Jacques-Joseph Rosset (1741-1826), François-Marie Rosset (1743-1824) and Claude-Antoine Rosset (1749-1818) often worked together producing a numerous portrait busts and statuettes of famous figures of the day, most notable that of Voltaire. Joseph Rosset is generally thought to have produced many of the basic models which they worked on and it is likely that they continued to reproduce these models after his death.