A French Terracotta bust of Madame de Bonnard, née Anne-Charlotte-Sophie Silvestre, by Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) dated 1780

signed and dated on the reverse Pajou Regis S. 1780.

Comtesse Guéhéneuc de Boishüe, Château de la Guerche (Côtes-d'Armor)
Sotheby's Paris, December 17, 2002, lot 90
Sotheby's New York, May 20, 2010, lot 73

H. Stein, Augustin Pajou, Les Grands Sculpteurs Français du XVIII Siècle, Paris, 1912, pp. 71-72 and 335 (illus.), and p. 411
J. D. Draper and G. Scherf, Augustin Pajou, Royal Sculptor 1730-1809, exh. cat., Musée du Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997-98, p. 388

General, standard surface abrasions and very minor chipping. The bust was cleaned and stripped of a greenish polychromy (which may have been applied in the 18th or 19th century). Small traces remain in some crevices. There are some expertly repaired hairline firing cracks and surface restorations throughout. Some surface repair to eyebrows, upper eyelids, tip of nose, upper lip and some of chin. Some firing flaws and or cracks have been expertly consolidated including the neck, some areas of hair, specifically one curl on her proper right shoulder, small areas of chest and minor areas of drapery. All of this work has been done with sensitivity, preserving much of the original modeling and tooling.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) exhibited his portrait bust of Anne-Charlotte-Sophie Silvestre at the Salon of 1781, as number 229 and described as le buste du Mme de Bonnard.  The present terracotta bust may well be the one exhibited at the Salon but the livres de Salon do not mention the material of the portrait. The daughter of the drawing master to the royal children, Jacques-Augustin Silvestre, and descended from the famous draftsman and engraver Israël Silvestre (1621-1691), Madame de Bonnard is represented here as nearly 17 years old. In 1775, she married chevalier Bernard de Bonnard a Lieutenant in the regiment at Besançon and tutor of the duc de Chartres' children. One of Madame's aunts was the wife of sculptor Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne.

Pajou was a student of Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne and was accepted to the l'Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1759 at which time he obtained the title of Sculpteur du Roi. This title permitted him to sign his works Pajou Regis Sculptor, an abbreviation of which appears on the present bust. Stein illustrates the present bust (op. cit. p. 335) and erroneously notes that it is signed Pajou f. 1780, a detail that is repeated in later literature prior to the appearance of this bust on the market.

The artist's ability to create intimate portraits which accurately reveal the sitter's character is beautifully illustrated by the present terracotta. There is a directness and precision to his work which includes renderings of Madame du Barry, which Pajou presented at the Salon of 1771 and is now in the Louvre, the painters Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1783) and Hubert Robert (1789), the poet Michael John Sedaine (1775) and the portrait of Nathalie de Laborde (1789).

The present bust of Madame de Bonnard is remarkable for its elegance and vitality.  The long curls of hair fall naturally over her shoulders exhibit an attention to detail and an interest in both varied surface textures and contemporary coiffures, all of which are distinctive features in Pajou's oeuvre.  Stylistically, the present portrait compares closest with Pajou's bust of Madame Sedaine (1781), wife of the poet (see Draper/Scherf, op.cit.,no. 102), particularly in the treatment of the hair and dress.  A plaster version of this model was sold at Sotheby's Monaco June 16, 1990, lot 812.

The art of French portraiture was at its height in the middle of the eighteenth century and both Pajou's official portraits and sculptures for private individuals were hailed. In the 1767 Grand Salon Pajou presented busts of Dauphin Louis de France (later Louis XVI), the comte de Provence and the comte d'Artois. After the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, the comte d'Angiviller, director of the Bâtiments du Roi, named Pajou portraitiste attitré du Roi. In 1779, the sculptor presented a marble bust of the King at the Salon which is now preserved at Versailles.