Jean-Léon Gérôme

Overall the condition of the marble is good, with minor dirt and wear to the surface consistent with age. A section at the front, including the little figure's proper left foot, has been carved separately, and a slightly visible, possibly partly restored joint, is visible. Viewed from the underside, this joint is more clearly visible, and there is another line slightly further back, but this appears merely to be the delimitation line of the polished surface meeting the roughly hewn surface. The tinting of the lips and possibly the eyebrows and hair appear to have been refreshed. The tinting of the little figure and the flowers appears to be original, but it is possibly that it has also been refreshed a little. There are a few dirt marks to the edges, particularly near the signature. There are a few small naturally occurring inclusions to the marble, in particular to the chest and to the nose.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Madeleine Juliette was the fifth and final child born to the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme and his wife Marie in 1875. In 1863 Gérôme had married the daughter of the art publisher and dealer, Adolphe Goupil. The marriage cemented a relationship that had significant financial benefits for both artist and publisher. The prints produced and sold by Goupil after Gérôme’s Salon canvasses made Gérôme a household name and increased the prices for the original paintings, which Goupil also sold. In the year of his marriage, Gérôme was Goupil’s most reproduced painter.

Encouraged by his father-in-law, Gérôme turned to sculpture in 1878, at the age of 55. He surprised his contemporaries by bringing a youthful passion to this new medium, introducing hyper-realism and polychromy with an innovative fervour. The present bust recalls motifs from some of Gérôme’s best-known sculptural works. The graceful twisting figure at the base of the portrait is reminiscent of the Hoop Dancer, held in the hand of Gérôme’s Tanagra of 1890, which was later produced as a separate statuette. The head of Tanagra was also produced as a separate sculpture and its ‘broken’ truncation is repeated in the bust of Madeleine. Gérôme returns to sculptural tropes he used in his famous portrait bust of Sarah Bernhardt, begun in 1895 and completed with polychromy in 1901. There Gérôme uses a small figure of Tragedy at the base to characterise the subject, substituted in the portrait of Madeleine by the graceful antique dancer. Sarah Bernhardt has a string of putti climbing her right shoulder, where roses entwine the base of the present bust and climb Madeleine’s left shoulder.

This marble was not the first likeness of Madeleine created by Gérôme. A portrait of his youngest daughter as a child with her dolls was painted around 1883 (sold Sotheby’s New York, 22^nd May 1991, lot 86). Madeleine’s likeness was also captured by her brother-in-law the painter Aimé Morot, who completed her portrait in 1890.

RELATED LITERATURE
L. des Cars, D. de Font-Reaulx and E. Papet, The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), exh. cat., Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2010, pp. 291-296, nos. 168–172 and 187