Monumental Bust of King Louis Philippe

Marble
France, second quarter 19th Century
James Pradier (1790 – 1852)
Art Loss Register Reference: S00240945


H 75 x W 55 x D 35 cm
H 29 1/2 x W 21 2/3 x D 13 3/4 inch

C.Lapaire, James Pradier (1790-1852) et la sculpture française de la génération romantique, (Paris – 2010).

The history of the busts of Louis-Philippe by Pradier - several of which are documented - is quite complicated. We know from his correspondence that he began the first one on August 6, 1830 (letter to the Duchess of Orléans). Three days later, through a printed circular letter, he offered plaster proofs for 100 francs to "MM. les Préfets, Maires, etc., des Départements" (Prefects, Mayors, etc., of the Departments).
Then, on August 16, he announced to the Attorney General Dupin senior that the bust should be placed in the Council Room of the Order of Lawyers and that he had first proofs available at the price of "100 f. with a bare neck and 120 f. dressed".
On the same date, he wrote to the king to inform him that a plaster proof was "already (...) placed at the City Hall" and to request a posing session before starting the marble execution. Finally, on November 16, He signed with the royal sculptor a protest addressed to the prefect of the Seine, complaining that a competition organized by the City of Paris for the king's bust - a competition that had selected his for a second round, along with those of Fovatier and Caillouette - had been judged too lightly in favor of Caillouette.

Claude Lapaire, in his recent reasoned catalogue of Pradier, summarises all these facts in two separate notices, one for the bust realized in August 1830 (cat. no. 69) and the other for the work presented in the competition (cat. no. 70). To support the hypothesis of two different works, he quotes the art critic Jal who, having noted the presence of eight busts of the king at the Salon of 1831, asserted: "I saw one a few months ago at the Hôtel-de-Ville which seems to me, from memory, superior to all those exhibited here: it is by Mr. Pradier.