A pair of Empire style ormolu wall lights
Twin-flame appliques cast in several parts and screw-mounted. Re-gilded. Height c. 34 cm.
Attributed to Claude Galle, Paris, early 19th C.
Claude Galle (1759 - 1815) became a maître bronzier in 1786. Initially working in his father-in-law's studio, he carried out his orders for the Garde-Meuble. His first independent contracts were for the gilding of furniture fittings. Denis Ledoux-Lebard took the trouble to research and transcribe all of Galle's royal commissions in the archives. After a rather difficult start in the last days of Louis XVI's reign, Galle was successful under Napoleon. From 1805 onwards he received numerous large commissions, including sculptural ones, where his skills as one of the best bronziers of his time were called upon. After Claude Galle's death in 1815, his son Gérard-Jean Galle took over the business, although he had actually aspired to a career in the military. He kept the workshop going through all the political crises of the period, but was forced to liquidate it in 1836.
This model of sconces, supported by half-figures of winged genii, was also realised by Antoine-André Ravrio, as evidenced by the example in the Grand Trianon.
Literature
Cf. Ottomeyer/Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, vol. I, Munich 1986, fig. 5.10.5 ff.
On Claude Galle see Ledoux-Lebard, Bronziers des Empire, in: Ottomeyer/Pröschel (eds.), Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, vol. II, Munich 1986, p. 704 ff.