A Bacchante

This terracotta relates to a number of figures by Claude Michel, known as Clodion (1738-1814), and his best known student, Joseph-Charles Marin (1759-1834). The earliest of these is a life-size marble figure of Antigone by Clodion that was part of a series of four mytho-allegorical statues made for the comte d'Artois, the future Charles X, in 1782 (A. Poulet and G. Scherf, Clodion: 1738-1814, exh. cat., Paris, 1992, cat. no. 52). The present figure is closely related in the sway-hipped pose that suggests the bacchante's intoxication, upturned face with mouth open in sensual elation, and drapery falling to expose both breasts.

Differences in modeling, facial type and composition point to this terracotta being by an accomplished follower, well-acquainted with Clodion's production. A terracotta of a reclining bacchante with two infants by Marin, possibly shown in the 1793 Salon and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1983.185.5), shares the fully extended right arm holding a wine goblet above her head, as though in a toast. Marin, a student of Clodion's, studied in Rome between 1797 and 1801 at which time he won the Prix de Rome. Under the patronage of Lucien Bonaparte, Marin worked in Rome where he was appointed Professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1805.

Two other standing bacchantes by Marin, one in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection signed and dated 1784 (A. Radcliffe, M. Baker and M. Maek-Gerard, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Renaissance and Later Sculpture, London, 1992, cat. no. 53) and another one formerly in the collection of Madame de Pols (Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris, 17-18 November 1936, lot 165), are also closely related. While the treatment of the base, facial type, gesture and sense of proportion in the present example differs from more typical works by Marin, there is a clear indebtedness in overall composition, emotion and nervous modeling of drapery.

When the Revolution progressed into the Terror (1793-1795), the taste for Clodion's brand of sweetly seductive bacchante and playful satyrs fell out of favor. It was not until the fall of the Empire in 1815 and the Restauration of the following years that this taste was once again fashionable. For the range of borrowed motifs and quality of craftsmanship, it is most likely that the present terracotta dates from this period of resurgent popularity.