Lot 93: Edouard Joseph Dantan , French 1848-1897 MY FATHER'S STUDIO oil on canvas

signed Dantan , dedicated Rémon , and dated 1881 (lower center) oil on canvas

measurements 38 by 48 3/4 in. alternate measurements 96.5 by 124 cm

Edouard-Joseph Dantan was the son of the renowned French sculptor Antoine-Laurent Dantan (1798-1878) and nephew to Jean-Pierre Dantan (1800-1869) also a sculptor and celebrated for his portraits and caricatures of his contemporaries. Growing up among these two great men, Dantan gained an intimate understanding of both the demands and pleasures of the artist's life. It is this first-hand, nuanced experience that informs the present My Father's Studio, the second version of the artist's Salon submission of 1880. The original, titled Un Coin D'Atelier, was so well-received that it was quickly acquired by the French State for the Musée du Luxembourg (and now hangs in the Sénat), with the demand for further versions soon apparent. In both compositions, Dantan shows his father in his Saint-Cloud studio absorbed in the restoration of his bas-relief of The Drunkenness of Silenus. Antoine-Laurent first completed a terracotta version of The Drunkeness of Silenus for the Prix de Rome in 1831, followed by the marble carving exhibited at the Salon of 1868. In both the terracotta and marble renderings, the sculptor portrays Silenus, the infamous figure from Greek mythology, a great drunkard and fitting teacher of Dionysus, inebriated, near collapse, and supported by a donkey and attendants. The marble masterwork was severely damaged during the occupation of the sculptor's house by the Prussian Army during the Franco-Prussian War, while other works were confiscated altogether. Antonie-Laurent would devote the remaining years of his life to The Drunkenness of Silenus' restoration (the work now resides in the Louvre, gifted by the Dantan descendants). Two years after Antonie-Laurent's death, Dantan completed the present work as a tribute to his father, his devotion to his craft and his patronage. At the same time, the composition demonstrates Dantan's own skill and talent as he employs his academic training to elevate a contemporary figure to historic status. He portrays with precision the various plaster casts of Antique models, sharp steel tools, and layers of stone dust of the sculptor's studio and, more significantly, personalizes the depiction of his father; seen from below, his dark form looms heroically before the bas-relief, his hunched shoulders and roughened hands juxtaposed with the fineness of the chisel and delicate tap of the hammer. Yet perhaps the most compelling details come from the most mundane and humorous elements of the composition. A review of the Salon version notes the painting's details from "everyday life": a semi-nude model (whose presence is not required by the work at hand), two empty cordial glasses, two emptied liquor bottles and, most oddly, children's shoes tucked under a table, all suggesting a secondary narrative to the scene. While the reviewer found these elements "a little puerile" he also remarked "they give the exact impression of an interesting corner of contemporary life" (translated from French, Art Contemporain, Album Salon de 1880, 1υst edition, n.p.).