A pair of sculptural ormolu candelabra
after a model by Clodion
Three-flame gilt and burnished bronze candelabra, cast in several parts and screw-mounted. Designed as female figures in classical attire standing on angular plinths, each with one arm around a vase on a rocky base. The three curved branches surrounding central ones, issuing from eagle head reliefs with acanthus foliage. H 111.5, W base c. 22, D 18 / 18.5 cm.
Paris, attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire, around 1780 - 85.
Masterly Casting Technique
This candelabrum figure by Claude Michel, called Clodion (1738 - 1814), is based on a terracotta sculpture, "Égyptienne au naos", which is now in the Louvre ( inv. no. RF 2548). Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1738 - 1814), son of a Parisian bronzier, learned his craft at the best address of his time, with the "maître bronzier" Pierre Gouthière, and studied with Pajou and Houdon at the Académie de Saint-Luc. He concentrated on figural bronzes early on and had contacts with all the Parisian sculptors and studios of his time even before the Revolution. His bronzes demonstrate masterly casting technique but also a great talent for composition. Although he quoted Clodion's model, he placed it in a different context and gave the interpretation his own touch. The candelabrum still shows the closeness to Gouthière's models, but the elegant realisation of the female figure with the delicate, almost transparent-looking garment bears a new creative signature.
Provenance
Private collection, Rhineland.
Literature
Cf. Ottomeyer/Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. I, Munich 1986, fig. 4.14.12, for a second, little changed version in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Gift of Grace Rainey Rogers in memory of her father, William J. Rainey 1942.58).
Other cast versions of the candelabra:
Apollo Magazine September 1970, p. 247.
Collection Baron Alain de Rothschild, auctioned by Drouot on 14th March 1986, lot 42.
A version with four branches in the Palace of Pavlovsk.
For more on Thomire see Harris Cohen, Pierre-Philippe Thomire - Unternehmer und Künstler, in: Ottomeyer/Pröschel (eds.), Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, vol. II, Munich 1986, p. 657 ff.