Large 19th Century Bronze, 86 Cm, Christophe Gabriel Allegrain 1710/1795, Venus In The Bath

Period: 19th century, bronze with very beautiful patina, in very good condition, lost wax casting, in very good condition
Signed: GC ALLEGRAIN (after, because our bronze here is from the 19th century)
Subject: Venus in the bath
Dimensions: height: 86 cm, width: 30 cm, depth: 27 cm. – 33 Kg

Biography:
Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain 1710 / 1795
Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain, born October 11, 1710 in Paris and died April 17, 1795 in the same city, is a French sculptor. Grandson of Étienne Allegrain (around 1650-1733), landscape painter, and son of Gabriel Allegrain (around 1680-1733), also a member of the Academy, Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain is the brother-in-law and collaborator of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.
He became sculptor to the king and member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, of which he was rector and dean. At the very beginning of the 18th century, Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain settled in Paris in the Marais district, along rue du Rempart (current rue Meslay), where he established his workshop on the site of the former ramparts of Philippe Auguste and Charles V1.
Among the artists who then had their studio in this street were the sculptor Robert Le Lorrain, as well as Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, his collaborator, whose sister Geneviève Charlotte Pigalle (1713-before 1744) he married. Succeeding Lambert Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759), he was appointed professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture on July 7, 1759 and was replaced by Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau in 1781.
Source Bénézit and Pierre Kjellberg, Dictionary sculptors: 19th century bronzes, Éditions de l'Amateur, 1997.

Works in public collections Paris, Louvre museum: Bather or Venus in the bath (1767), Paris, Louvre museum. Bather or Venus in the bath, Salon of 1767, marble statue, 174 × 62 × 67.5 cm4. In 1755, the Marquis de Marigny, director of the King's Buildings, ordered a Venus from Allegrain for the Château de Choisy. The terracotta sketch was presented at the salon of 1757, but was hardly noticed. In 1767, the large marble was completed and exhibited in the sculptor's workshop.
The same year, it was presented at the Salon, and received praise, notably from Denis Diderot whose comment remained famous: “Beautiful, beautiful, sublime figure; they even say the most beautiful, the most perfect figure that the moderns have made […] The beautiful shoulders, how beautiful they are, how chubby this back is, what shape of arms, what precious, what miraculous truths of nature in all these parts. The work is thus unanimously appreciated despite the poor quality of the marble supplied to the sculptor, suffering from several bluish veins. This was the first important order given to the sculptor, and Diderot admitted in a letter of May 1768 to the sculptor Falconet: “Well, this Allegrain, of whom I had never heard, has just made a Venus bathing which looks 'admiration, even from masters of the art'. Allegrain was significantly inspired by a small bronze by the Mannerist sculptor Jean de Bologne, Bather placing her foot on a vase of perfume (several examples known), taking up the sinuous line of the body, the drooping shoulders, the high and small chest, and the hairstyle made up of sophisticated braids.
The work intrigued contemporaries with its sensual pose, leaning forward, with a delicate inclination of the head, which also required leaving a bridge behind the neck to strengthen the sculpture.
The face is animated by a discreet smile and a squint in the left eye, soliciting the viewer's complicity. We note the naturalism of the body, the full flesh, revealing rolls and folds on the stomach, the hips, and the crook of the arm, so admired by Diderot. The sculpture was acquired by Louis XV who offered it in 1772 to his favorite Madame du Barry, who then installed it in the park of the Château de Louveciennes.

Sold with Invoice and Certificate.

Bronze visible at our gallery in L'Isle sur la Sorgue (France), on weekends.
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