Pair of candlesticks for gardening children, 18th century

Pair of candlesticks in mercury-gilded bronze and bronze with brown patina.

On a round base, decorated with grooves, water leaves and a drape held laterally by two knots, two child gardeners in bronze with a brown patina stand. Each child, a boy and a young girl, holds in his hand a pot from which comes out a tulip whose flower serves as a basket.

Completely in the spirit of the sculptures of the end of the 18th century, these child gardeners come close to the iconography close to a sculptor like Falconet, or even Pajou or Pigalle and illustrate this trend in vogue at that time and influenced by Queen Marie-Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette wishes to move away from the constraints of the court of Versailles and has the Queen's hamlet built, with nostalgia for a more rustic life, in a natural setting inspired by the writings of Rousseau, the Queen's hamlet, a little paradise where the theater and partying make her forget her condition as queen.

This rural place, which was also an agricultural holding, marked the influence of the ideas of the philosophers of the Enlightenment on the aristocracy of the time. Made up of around ten small houses with a rustic appearance, inspired by architectural drawings by the painter Hubert Robert, some of them contain the most refined interior decorations. Our candle holders fully reflect this spirit.

France, end of the 18th century.

Height: 36.5 cm.
Width: 13.5 cm.