Guillaume BOICHOT (Chalon sur Saône 1735 - Paris 1814)

Trophée d'armes au vase, boucliers, armure et fi gure enchaînée Black and grey wash, white highlights 24,8 x 30,4 cm Signed lower left Boichot Sculptor Fecit Bears lower right the dry stamp of the fitter François Renaud (Lugt n° 1042) Provenance : - Collection of the fitter François Renaud ; - Acquired from the Claude van Loock gallery, Brussels, 1977. Exhibitions : - Drawings from the Christian and Isabelle Adrien collection, Rennes, Musée des Beaux - Arts, 2012 n°63, reproduced, (notice by Sylvain Laveissière). - Drawings from the Christian and Isabelle Adrien collection, Sceaux, Petit Château - 2013 (no catalogue) Note: The sculptor Guillaume Boichot was a talented draughtsman, and a large number of his drawings constitute works in themselves, without any connection with sculpture. A pupil of Challe, he spent time in Rome at his own expense between 1766 and 1770, and it is clear that he was influenced by the rediscovery of Antiquity, as well as by Piranesi. This trophy of arms occupies a singular place in Boichot's drawings. The artist was inspired by numerous ancient objects but also by the work of Giulio Romano. Reminiscences of his large vase on the left can be found in his bas-reliefs. The Louvre has a funerary vase modelled by Boichot in 1780 for a cousin of Vivant Denon (inv. RF 4375), and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris has a drawing, Trois modèles de vases, of the same workmanship (inv. 4637) His training as an ornamentalist and his neo-Mannerist repertoire make Boichot one of the artists at the origin of the revival of the Fontainebleau School. Boichot worked mainly in Burgundy and Paris, notably on the bas-reliefs of the Pantheon and later on those of the CarrouseL