A PAIR OF RESTAURATION BRONZE FIGURES OF VOLTAIRE AND ROUSSEAU

CIRCA 1830, AFTER THE MODEL BY JEAN-CLAUDE ROSSET, CALLED ROSSET PERE (1706-86)

Details

A PAIR OF RESTAURATION BRONZE FIGURES OF VOLTAIRE AND ROUSSEAU
CIRCA 1830, AFTER THE MODEL BY JEAN-CLAUDE ROSSET, CALLED ROSSET PERE (1706-86)
Each modelled with a cane, on square stepped red marble plinths with foliate-cast mounts
Voltaire - 19 in. (48 cm.) high; Rousseau - 18 in. (46 cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W.1., recorded in the Theatre in 1939.
By descent to his sister Sybil, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, Houghton Hall, Norfolk.
Sold Works of Art from Houghton, Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 78.

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Lot Essay

The figures of Rousseau and Voltaire are after the model by Jean-Claude Rosset, called Rosset père (1706-86). Originally trained in the mediums of wood and ivory, he established himself in Paris in 1771, specialising in busts of Voltaire, Rousseau, de Montesquieu and d'Alembert, which he sold for between 2 and 8 louis. The bust of Voltaire, which the philosopher sat for in 1767, was supplied as a model for Sèvres and sold for 60 livres. A bust of Rousseau, signed 'Rosset Père A. St-Claude 1756', is in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (Tardy, Les Ivoires: Evolution Décorative du 1er Siècle à nos jours, Paris, 1972, pp. 195 and 271-2).

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