A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE TORCHERE FIGURES, cast from models by François Christoph Armand Toussaint of a slave and a girl, both standing, she bare-breasted wearing an embroidered headdress and skirt tied at her waist and falling to her feet, with gilded pendant earrings and holding a torch in her raised right arm, a broken necklace at her feet, he bare-chested and wearing a loincloth and headdress falling down to his feet; with an ornate feather fan in his right hand and holding a torch in his raised left arm, each on a woven 'reed' carpet on a naturalistic rectangular base, both signed AD TOUSSAINT . 1850 and engraved to the reverse F. BARBEDIENNE. FONDEUR, the woman engraved 19 and stamped HHH to the underside, the man inscribed 126 and HHH (the back of the bases drilled for gas electricity, the man lacking one earring), third quarter 19th Century

细节

A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE TORCHERE FIGURES, cast from models by François Christoph Armand Toussaint of a slave and a girl, both standing, she bare-breasted wearing an embroidered headdress and skirt tied at her waist and falling to her feet, with gilded pendant earrings and holding a torch in her raised right arm, a broken necklace at her feet, he bare-chested and wearing a loincloth and headdress falling down to his feet; with an ornate feather fan in his right hand and holding a torch in his raised left arm, each on a woven 'reed' carpet on a naturalistic rectangular base, both signed A<->D TOUSSAINT . 1850 and engraved to the reverse F. BARBEDIENNE. FONDEUR, the woman engraved 19 and stamped HHH to the underside, the man inscribed 126 and HHH (the back of the bases drilled for gas electricity, the man lacking one earring), third quarter 19th Century
each figure: 30in. (76.2cm.) high; 8in. (20cm.) wide; 6¼ in. (15.8cm.) deep (2)

拍品专文

François Christophe Armand Toussaint (d.1862) was born in Paris in 1806. Entering the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1827, he studied under David D'Angers and was to win the Second Grand Prix de Rome in 1832. He made his debut at the Salon in 1836. His work included many commissions for public buildings in Paris, such as for the Palais de Justice, Notre Dame, Saint Clotilde and the Palais du Louvre.

The present pair of torchère figures of an Indian slave and girl are casts made from the original plaster models exhibited at the Salon of 1847. The bronze versions were put on show at the Salon of 1850 and were bought by the Ministry for the Interior for the sum of twelve thousand francs. They are now to be found in the Palais d'Elysée, Paris.