D'après CLODION, CLAUDE MICHEL DIT (Nancy, 1738 - Paris, 1814)

PAIR OF LARGE EGYPTIAN FIGURE CANDLES Louis XVI period Chased, patinated and gilt bronze; porphyry H. 98 cm, W. 32 cm, D. 23 cm Inventory number of the Rothschild collections, on the back, in red: 2214 R PROVENANCE Former collection of Baron Alain de Rothschild (sale at Drouot, 14 March 1986, lot 42) This large pair of candelabras, nearly one meter high, is remarkable for the quality of its female figures rising on a porphyry drum decorated with gilt bronze. They face each other, holding in their opposite arms a large vase placed on a rocky mound. From the vase three arms of light mixed with ears of wheat and a caduceus topped by a bouquet of flowers au naturel. They differ from each other by their clothing and their hairstyle. These young women are derived from the Egyptian naos of Clodion. Clodion made two versions of this sculpture, which is less than 50 centimeters high; the terracotta in the Louvre, dressed and coiffed in the same way as our figure on the right (fig. 1), and the one exhibited in Vienna in 1968, which, as here, embraces a vase instead of the naos (reproduced in the Angelika Kaufmann exhibition catalog, no. 170). There are several variants of these candelabras with Egyptian figures, after Clodion, of which Dominique Daguerre seems to have had the exclusive right. For example, the four-light model in the Cleveland Museum is identical to the pair from the former Sigismond Bardac collection (fig. 2). Closer to ours is the one from the Pavlosk Palace with four lights and a caduceus (fig. 3). The pair of candelabras we are presenting comes from the former collection of Baron Alain de Rothschild (fig. 4), and is distinguished by the quality of the casting of its Egyptian women, evident in the rendering of the wet drapery that shows the navel of the left figure.