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拍品专文
Aubert-H.-J. Parent (1753 - 1835), remembered as a virtuoso carver of neo-classical bas-reliefs with naturalistic rendering of outstanding skill and subtlety, was also an architect, an antiquary who published Roman ruins he examined in Switzerland and near his native Valenciennes, and a designer who issued engravings for ironwork and clock cases.
Born December 13, 1753 at Cambrai in France, Parent's precocious talent was soon noticed by Anne-Gabriel de Cardevac, Marquis d'Havrincourt and other local aristocrats with connections at the court of Louis XVI. Parent's first important commission was a carved panel presented in 1777 to Louis XVI who placed it in the salle à manger intérieure at Versailles. In 1784 Parent made his first visit to Italy where he stayed until 1788 studying classical antiquity and the monumental ruins. Upon his return to Paris in 1788 Parent set about publishing his designs for vases, consoles, seat furniture, wrought-iorn balconies and staircase railings.
Parent left Paris for Switzerland in 1792, originally settling in Basel before moving to Neuchâtel by 1795. In 1793 he described himself as sieur Aubert. Parent, Sculptor, Designer, Academician and former pensioner of his late Majesty, Louis XVI, King of France, resident of Bâle, Switzerland. In Basel Parent lectured at the University and directed local excavations of Roman remains, finally publishing Antiquitiés de la Suisse. From 1797 to 1804 he worked in Berlin before returning to Neuchâtel. He finally returned to Valenciennes in 1813, where he established a chair of architecture at the academy. He continued to sculpt, exhibiting at Valenciennes in 1817, 1818, 1833 and 1835, at Douai in 1817, Lille in 1830 and Cambrai in 1834.
This urn and the following smaller urn, are the first fully three-dimensional sculptures by Aubert Parent to have re-surfaced. All the others being bas-reliefs in which the relief runs the gamut from the most subtly modulated all-but-plane surfaces to fully undercut naturalistic detail. They both descended in the Aubert family, craftsmen in the Marais district in Paris. An unsigned chalk, ink and wash design for an ornamental vase specifying all the motives of the central acanthus baluster, griffins and garlands and the leaf-carved base of this piece, but substituting a low flaming vase for the campana urn, was sold at Christie's East, New York, 10 January 1991, lot 301. Though it was attributed to an Italian contemporary of Parent, it has now been securely attributed to Aubert Parent and appears to be a project for this urn.
A horizontal bas-relief signed on an edge 'Aubert Parent fecit 1827' which shows a songbird alighted on a spray of roses, was sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, 14 June 1994, lot 46, illustrated. A relief signed 'Aubert Parent fecit 1794' from the collection of Herbert Binney, was sold Christie's, London, 5 July 1994, lot 24, illustrated. It shows a dead songbird suspended from its left foot, while a dormouse raids the upturned unprotected nest. This is a cherished theme of Parent's, a variation on a composition represented by a relief now in the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt. The royal bas-relief that propelled Parent to fame in 1777 is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France. Other Parent bas-reliefs can be seen at the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
For a full discussion of the life and works of Aubert Parent, see Colin Streeter, Two Carved Reliefs by Aubert Parent, the J.Paul Getty Museum Journal, 13/1985, pp. 53 - 66.
Born December 13, 1753 at Cambrai in France, Parent's precocious talent was soon noticed by Anne-Gabriel de Cardevac, Marquis d'Havrincourt and other local aristocrats with connections at the court of Louis XVI. Parent's first important commission was a carved panel presented in 1777 to Louis XVI who placed it in the salle à manger intérieure at Versailles. In 1784 Parent made his first visit to Italy where he stayed until 1788 studying classical antiquity and the monumental ruins. Upon his return to Paris in 1788 Parent set about publishing his designs for vases, consoles, seat furniture, wrought-iorn balconies and staircase railings.
Parent left Paris for Switzerland in 1792, originally settling in Basel before moving to Neuchâtel by 1795. In 1793 he described himself as sieur Aubert. Parent, Sculptor, Designer, Academician and former pensioner of his late Majesty, Louis XVI, King of France, resident of Bâle, Switzerland. In Basel Parent lectured at the University and directed local excavations of Roman remains, finally publishing Antiquitiés de la Suisse. From 1797 to 1804 he worked in Berlin before returning to Neuchâtel. He finally returned to Valenciennes in 1813, where he established a chair of architecture at the academy. He continued to sculpt, exhibiting at Valenciennes in 1817, 1818, 1833 and 1835, at Douai in 1817, Lille in 1830 and Cambrai in 1834.
This urn and the following smaller urn, are the first fully three-dimensional sculptures by Aubert Parent to have re-surfaced. All the others being bas-reliefs in which the relief runs the gamut from the most subtly modulated all-but-plane surfaces to fully undercut naturalistic detail. They both descended in the Aubert family, craftsmen in the Marais district in Paris. An unsigned chalk, ink and wash design for an ornamental vase specifying all the motives of the central acanthus baluster, griffins and garlands and the leaf-carved base of this piece, but substituting a low flaming vase for the campana urn, was sold at Christie's East, New York, 10 January 1991, lot 301. Though it was attributed to an Italian contemporary of Parent, it has now been securely attributed to Aubert Parent and appears to be a project for this urn.
A horizontal bas-relief signed on an edge 'Aubert Parent fecit 1827' which shows a songbird alighted on a spray of roses, was sold at Sotheby's, Monaco, 14 June 1994, lot 46, illustrated. A relief signed 'Aubert Parent fecit 1794' from the collection of Herbert Binney, was sold Christie's, London, 5 July 1994, lot 24, illustrated. It shows a dead songbird suspended from its left foot, while a dormouse raids the upturned unprotected nest. This is a cherished theme of Parent's, a variation on a composition represented by a relief now in the Liebieghaus, Frankfurt. The royal bas-relief that propelled Parent to fame in 1777 is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes, France. Other Parent bas-reliefs can be seen at the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
For a full discussion of the life and works of Aubert Parent, see Colin Streeter, Two Carved Reliefs by Aubert Parent, the J.Paul Getty Museum Journal, 13/1985, pp. 53 - 66.