Child With Bird And Child In Nest After Jean-baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785), Work Circa 1840

Child with a bird and Child with a nest after Jean-Baptiste PIGALLE (1714-1785), work circa 1840. Pair of bronze sculptures with brown patina on a black marble base, beautiful chiseling, particularly on the hair and plumage of the chick, French work from the first half of the 19th century. (H79 and 81 cm). Provenance: Gaston Levy Collection. Bibliography: Alistair Laing, A bird in the hand, in Antologia di Bella Arti, La Scultura II, no. 52-55, 1996, p. 154-165. Jean René Gaborit, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785), Sculptures du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1985, p. 26, fig. 1-2. J. Niclausse, Thomire: Fondeur-Ciseleur (1751-1843), Sa vie, son œuvre, Paris, 1947, pp. 51, 107 and 165. Expert's notes: This is a cast from the beginning of the 19th century after sculptures by Pigalle, a pair of which, signed 'Pigalle fecit 1768, bronze by Thomire', is kept at the Musée Nissim de Camondo (see Cat. musée Nissim de Camondo, no. 325) and a second pair is at the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, New York (see op. cit., p. 157, figs. 6 and 7). ….. The origin of the model for these bronzes has not been determined. According to the latest research by Alistair Laing, these bronzes were made from marbles by the sculptor Jean-Pierre Pigalle, and not by his uncle Jean-Baptiste, during his stay in Italy in 1768 (formerly in the Duc de Clermont-Tonnerre collection, Chateau de Glisolles, and now in the Arthur Veil-Picard collection). Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) won the gold medal for the casting of these bronzes at the 1823 Salon.