Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856) - Lot 64

Lot 64
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Result : 3 200EUR
Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856) - Lot 64
Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856) The Beresina and Somo-Sierra Two plaster bas-reliefs Both signed "DAVID d'ANGERS" lower left La Bérésina: H. 76.5 x W. 105.5 cm (original frame: H. 87 x W. 116 cm); Somo-Sierra: H. 77.5 x W. 108 cm (original frame: H. 87 x W. 121 cm) Napoleon's famous and faithful surgeon, Dominique Jean Larrey, died on July 25, 1842. The Conseil de Santé des Armées and the Minister of War decided to dedicate a monument to the great man's memory. On December 3, 1842, a national fund-raising commission was set up, and the project was entrusted to David d'Angers, who worked from a mask of Larrey cast from life, and several surgical instruments. The monumental statue depicts Larrey standing with his left leg forward, wearing the grand uniform of surgeon-in-chief of the Imperial Guard and draped in his so-called Wagram coat. In his right hand, he holds a scroll bearing a quotation attributed to Napoleon: "Larrey is the most virtuous man I have known". The monument, erected in 1850, still stands in the main courtyard of the Val-de-Grâce hospital in Paris. As usual, David adorned the monument's pedestal with large bas-reliefs depicting the heroic "feats of arms" in the life of the commemorated man. The two plaster models presented here illustrate in great detail the battle of Somo Sierra in Castile in 1808, and the passage of the Beresina River by the Grande Armée during the disastrous retreat from Russia in the winter of 1812. David treats the two episodes in a narrative manner, juxtaposing the scenes and shifting the action from one end of the composition to the other. In the lower left-hand corner of the Somo Sierra relief, he depicts the surgeon tending a wounded man at the Emperor's feet, impassive on horseback, in the midst of the raging battle that extends into the mountains like a text read from left to right. The same narrative system is used by David to bring to life the terrible rout of the Russian retreat. Larrey is depicted on the left of the composition, amidst the soldiers preparing to help him cross the bridge crowded with fugitives. The Cossacks appear at the top left of the relief, and the action, organized in successive long shots, once again reads like the page of a history book. Related works: -David d'Angers, La Bérésina, original model, 1846-1849, plaster bas-relief, signed and dated "DAVID D'ANGERS 1849", inscribed "BERESINA", H. 75 x W. 100 cm, Angers, galerie David d'Angers, inv. MBA 851.6 ; -David d'Angers, Somo Sierra, original model, 1846, plaster bas-relief, signed "DAVID D'ANGERS", inscribed "DR LARREY" and "SOMO-SIERRA" H. 75 x L. 100 cm, Angers, galerie David d'Angers, inv. MBA 851.4 ; -David d'Angers, Les pyramides, original model, 1846, plaster bas-relief, signed "DAVID D'ANGERS", inscribed "LES PYRAMIDES" and "LARREY", H. 75 x W. 100 cm, Angers, galerie David d'Angers, inv. MBA 851.3 ; David d'Angers, Austerlitz, original model, 1846, plaster bas-relief, signed "DAVID D'ANGERS", inscribed "DR LARREY" and "AUSTERLITZ", H. 75 x W. 100 cm, Angers, galerie David d'Angers, inv. MBA 851.5. Related literature: -G. Chesneau, Les œuvres de David d'Angers : sculpteur d'Histoire et mémorialiste, Angers, Impr. Centrale, 1934, pp. 53-55 ; -Maxime Blin, Véronique Boidard, "Le monument à Dominique-Jean Larrey de David d'Angers", in La Revue de France, Revue du Louvre, 2022-1, pp. 79-93.
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