Figure of seated bacchante, original terracotta by Louis Delaville 1811

Still little known, Louis Delaville is nevertheless one of the most endearing sculptors of the turn of the century. At a time of domination of a martial neo-classicism nourished by obscure references to an often fantasized antiquity, Delaville, despite being a pupil of Louis Boizot and Jacques-Louis David at the École des beaux-arts de Paris, prolonges the Picturesque moment of the 1770s-1780s. In modeled and baked clay, he gives life to a whole people of sympathetic and romantic characters, who one might think came out of the paintings of his contemporary Louis-Leopold Boilly, if they did not come from a more modest world. Of these terracotta groups of "ordinary life", the best known is certainly that of the "great-grandchildren of the painter François Boucher playing with the hot hand" created by Delaville in 1799 and today in the Louvre.

"Around 1800, Delaville worked in the capital with a potter who lodged him in an attic on rue Mazarine. In the evening, he made his terracotta statuettes which he sold to make a little money." After a few years in Paris where Delaville made small figures for a living, the northern artist returned to Lille. We offer a charming couple of shepherds who belong to this series.

In our bacchante figure, Delaville applies his style still very reminiscent of the 18th century, lively and popular, nourished by influences such as Clodion and a neo-classical theme, to a character from the Greek antiquity.

Very good state of conservation. A glued toe. Some traces and dirt.
Signed and dated "Delaville f(ecit) à Lille 1811"
Height: 37 cm - width: 24 cm - depth: 20 cm