Lot 68: f - Charles-Réné Saint-Marceaux French, 1845-1915 , Love's Embrace

signed and dated: S T MARCEAUX 1885 white marble

measurements note overall: 67 by c.58cm., 26¼ by 23in. base: 33 by 31cm., 13 by 12¼in.

Professor Sergej Iovanovitch;
Purchased by the family of the present owners circa 1980, Private Collection, Belgrade

This work, of exceptional quality and intimacy, recalls Jean-Antoine Houdon's famous double-busts of Le Baiser Donné (The Kiss Given) and Le Baiser Rendu (The Kiss Received). The double-bust is a surprisingly rare portrait form and Saint-Marceaux must have seen examples of the numerous bronze reductions of Houdon's models which continued to be cast in France during the 19th century. Houdon's original marble groups date to the 1770's and were inspired by contemporary fables by La Fontaine, such as the story of the gardener Guillot. They are, however, more lascivious than the interpretation given here by Saint-Marceaux, who imparts a more emotionally substantive rendering of a love, conveyed in the intimate proximity and lingering eyelids of the young couple. The suggestion of their blossoming relationship is further enhanced by the intricately carved truncation of entwined leaves, fruit and flowers.

At the time he created the present work in 1885, Saint-Marceaux was at the height of his career, with both the acclaimed effigy of L'abbé Miroy (1872, Cimitiere du Nord) and the Génie gardant le secret de la tombe (1879, Musée d'Orsay) behind him. For the latter he received the Medal of Honour and the following year was elected a chevalier of the Legion of Honour: in 1913 he was promoted to commandeur.

A terracotta version of the present double-bust, dating to 1883 but without the intricately carved socle, was sold on the Paris art market in 2002.

RELATED LITERATURE
Lami vol.4, pp.221-26; Wenley, pp.92-93