moss > Les Visiteurs d’ Été: Marie-Antoinette (round pedestal)

AUG 21, 2008

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Detail and alternate:

Les Visiteurs d’ Été:
Marie-Antoinette (round pedestal)

designer:
Louis-Simon Boizot

design year:
1774

manufacturer:
Manufacture National de Sèvres, France

materials:
biscuit porcelain

notes:
Louis-Simon Boizot, Chief Artist at the Manufacture National de Sèvres between 1773 and 1800, created this bust of Marie-Antoinette in 1774, the same year that she became Queen of France. A bust of the King and Queen were carried out by Boizot that year, each in two sizes, as was the rule at the time. Boizot quickly became a favorite of the King for the creation of Royal portraiture.

In 1793, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were sentenced to death by guillotine. Dominique Joseph Garat, the man who communicated the death sentence to the King, was named Minister of the Interior that year, and under his orders, all of the moulds of portraits of the Royalty were destroyed at Sèvres. Garat resigned that same year, reportedly out of disgust for the actions he had been forced to carry out.

Augustin Pajou, a sculptor who had won prestige and celebrity under the Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, re-made the moulds for this bust of Marie-Antoinette, using an example created in biscuit porcelain - fortunately sold by Sèvres before the Revolution.

dimensions:
height: 24 ½”

price upon request