François-Léon Sicard

The original plaster of this allegorical figure of the Night was in the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Agen since 1913 but has been lost since 1972. Sicard’s first marble version of the model, which measures 1.9m high, was commissioned by the French government in 1905 for the park of Saint-Cloud. The marble was first exhibited in the Paris Salon des artistes français of 1908 (no. 3647) and later that year in the École des Beaux-Arts for an exhibition showcasing the new acquisitions of the state. In 1912, the sculpture was in the Musée du Luxembourg and shortly thereafter exhibited in Lyon in 1914. In 1925, the sculpture was transported back to the state’s depot and given to the city of Constantine in Algeria.

The present marble is a reduced version, and to this day, the only known example of this size. The anatomy closely follows Sicard’s aforementioned life-size marble, but the drapery varies as the figure is covered from the waist down, whereas the sculpture commissioned for the gardens of Saint-Cloud is fully nude. The figure stands in a sensuous pose, which is reminiscent of compositions by the renaissance master Michelangelo, in particular his allegorical figure of Night in the Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici in Florence which similarly lifts one arm to her forehead. This comparison was also noted by André Beaunier in his article Les Salons de 1908 for the Gazette de Beaux-Arts periodical (op. cit.), describing the Michelangesque composition as the best part of the sculpture. He also accurately describes the marble as peaceful, soft, collected, and nocturnal.

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Beaunier, ‘Les Salons de 1908,’ in Gazette des Beaux-arts: la doyenne des revues d'art, Paris, 1908, p.50; G. Bresc-Bautier, A. Pingeot, Sculptures des jardins du Louvre, du Carrousel et des Tuileries, Paris, 1986, pp.404-405