A pair of Russian gilt and patinated bronze four-light wall appliques, circa 1815

Though evidently inspired from the French Empire style, this superb pair of wall lights embody the level to which bronze makers in Russia rose to cater an increasingly high demand for bronzes d’ameublement, providing the aristocrats with indigenous and original designs. They are exceptional both in terms of their design and execution with superbly cast and chased gilt-bronze, and they indeed can be brought closer to the work of one the most important bronziers of the Empire period, André-Antoine Ravrio (1759-1814) who not only received many commissions from French royalty but also from foreign courts, in particular Russia.

The present joins a group of lighting pieces all originally from Russian collections:

-a singular wall light of identical design held in the collections of Peterhof Palace (illustrated in Igor Sychev, The Russian Chandeliers, 200, p.129, nr. 597);

-a pair of wall lights of identical design in a private collection in St Petersburg (ill. in Igor Sychev, op.cit., p.129, nr. 596);

-two chandeliers both attributed to André-Antoine Ravrio and featuring identical winged putti and branches. The first is hanging in the Mikhailovsky Palace, now the Russian Museum of Saint Petersburg (ill. Igor Sychev, op.cit., p.193, nr. 978); and its pendant chandelier previously with the Kugel gallery in Paris (ill. in J. Kugel, Trésors des Tazars: La Russie & l’Europe de Pierre Le Grand à Nicolas 1er, 1988, p.121, nr.292).