细节 NARCISSUS CONTEMPLATING HIS IMAGE IN THE WATERPARIS SCHOOL, MID-18TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BY JEAN-BAPTISTE DUPONTmarble; depicted seated on a rocky outcrop from which water cascades, his dog beside him; on a panelled base with fluted volutes and acanthus leaf border, above a bleu turquin marble plinth23 1/2 in. (60 cm.) high; 29 1/2 in. (74,5 cm.) high, overall 来源 Collection of Louis-Antoine Crozat (1699-1770), baron de Thiers, brigadier of the Kings armies and Lieutenant General for His Majesty of the Province of Champagne; his sale, Paris, 26 February-27 March 1772, lot 946. 出版 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:J. Guiffrey, CLIII. Jean-Baptiste Dupont, maître sculpteur, professeur de l’Académie de Saint-Luc, 18 avril 1754, et Alix-Catherine Champtier, sa veuve, 23 décembre 1754, in Nouvelles archives de l’art français, Scellés et inventaires d’artistes (deuxième partie) 1741-1770, Paris, 1884, p. 180-196.S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1910, I, p. 311, and II, Paris, 1911, pp. 61 and 250.L. Réau, Une dynastie de sculpteurs au XVIIIe siècle: Les Lemoyne, Paris, 1927, pp. 54, 140 and 154.S. Boiron, L’hôtel d’Evreux, in La Place Vendôme, Art, pouvoir et fortune, Paris, Action Artistique de la Ville de Paris, 2002, p. 144-153. 注意事项 This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.This beautiful marble group depicts Narcissus in the guise of a young hunter, seated on a rock and accompanied by his dog and his attributes, above a neoclassical marble base with fluted volutes and a bleu turquin marble plinth. It was once part of one of the finest and most important art collections in France in the 18th century: that of Louis-Antoine Crozat (1699-1770), baron de Thiers, brigadier of the King's armies , and Lieutenant General for His Majesty of the Province of Champagne. The work was housed in the Hôtel d'Evreux - today no. 19 place Vendôme - the Parisian residence of the baron de Thiers, which he had inherited from his parents, and which he had occupied with his wife since 1743. The marble is included as lot no. 946 of his sale après-décès, held in Paris under the direction and expertise of Pierre Rémy between February 26 and March 27, 1772: ‘Narcisse se regardant dans l’eau qui tombe d’un rocher sur lequel il est assis, son chien est devant lui. Ce marbre qui a du mérite, porte 23 pouces de haut’ (‘Narcissus looking at himself in the water that falls from a rock on which he is sitting, his dog is in front of him. This marble, which has merit, is 23 inches high’). By its dimensions, its pyramidal composition and its subject, drawn here from Book III of Ovid's Metamorphoses, this Narcissus combines all the characteristics of a morceau de réception for the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture - a work which was required from all painters, sculptors and engravers aspiring to the title of academician following a royal decree of 1663. Sculpted on a circular base, Narcissus is represented seated on a rocky outcrop from which a waterfall flows, literally frozen in the contemplation of his own image reflected by the pool of water created at the foot of this rock which then continues to flow over the edge of the base. The work is a complex composition, skillfully combining theatricality and the sensuality so typical of rococo sculpture. Accompanied by his dog, Narcissus contemplates the pool of water while turning around, leaning on the rock with his left arm, his right arm extended, palm open in a frozen gesture suggesting the intensity of the surprise. The left leg projects forward and the right leg is folded back along the rocks, creating a spiral composition that invites the viewer to move around the marble and examine it from all angles. The hunter is depicted naked, with only a swathe of drapery around his hips, contrasting with the highly sensual treatment of his adolescent body, further accentuated by the high polish of the marble. This sensuality is also evident in the softness of the facial features, with almond-shaped eyes, as well as in the ample curls of hair. The group successfully combines a number of characteristics specific to the period: eloquent gestures, amplified expression, virtuosity of effects, and a taste for ornament. In the first half of the 18th century, subjects inspired by mythology or classical history predominated, particularly in the field of sculpture, however the theme of Narcissus seems to have been rare. In Stanislas Lami's exhaustive Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-huitième siècle, there are only three references to this subject, executed by Gabriel Allegrain (1733-after 1779, incorrectly attributed to Pigalle), Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1704-1778) and Jean-Baptiste Dupont (died 1754). The composition by Allegrain differs from the present marble and is known today from an example formerly in the collection of Dorothée, Princess de Sagan, which appeared on the Paris art market in 2014 (Piasa, 18 June, lot 122). The models by Lemoyne and Dupont, however, remain untraced.In the Salon of 1746, Lemoyne presented under no. 51: ‘The clay sketch of a young hunter who represents Narcissus encountering water’ (Lami, op. cit., II, p. 61). The work was described by Etienne La Font de Saint-Yenne, in his Reflections on the Salon of 1746: ‘We find in the same place and by the same hand a very small model of Narcissus, so well-known in the fable concerning the punishment of his self-regard. Although it is extremely sketchy, everything about it is fire and genius’ (cited in Réau, op. cit., p. 140). In 1752 Jean-Baptiste Dupont exhibited ‘A Narcissus in marble about 2 feet tall’ (approximately 60 cm.) under number 11 of the Salon of the Academy of Saint-Luc, which also organized exhibitions and prizes in parallel with those of the Royal Academy. Dupont was a professor of the Academy, and exhibited there regularly in the mid-18th century. Among his documented works is a full-length stone group of Pomona with the Genie of Vertumnus, commissioned by the Marquis d'Argenson in 1753 and recently sold at Christie’s New York (20 April 2018, lot 16). The Pomona shares a number of stylistic similarities with the present work, not least in the facial features of the figure of Pomona herself. Dupont's Narcissus was at his home when he died in 1754: ‘In the bedroom on the second floor: a marble figure on its pedestal, representing Narcissus’ (cited in Guiffrey, op. cit., p. 181).CROZAT DE THIERS Louis-Antoine Crozat (1693-1770), baron de Thiers, marquis de Moy, Maréchal de Camp des armées under Louis XV and Governor of Champagne, inherited, together with his two brothers, the considerable fortunes of both his uncle Pierre Crozat (1665-1740) and that of his father Antoine (1655-1738), 'dit' le Riche. His uncle amassed a fortune of more than 19,000 deniers, as well as a capital collection of pictures and sculptures. Louis-Antoine Crozat married Marie-Louise-Augustine de Montmorency-Laval in 1726, with whom he had three daughters, and they resided in the hôtel d'Evreux, in the place Vendôme, which his uncle had commissioned from the architect Bullet. An avid bibliophile, Louis-Antoine Crozat de Thiers left an important collection of pictures at his death, which were subsequently acquired by Catherine the Great.