History
Satyr and Bacchante, marble group signed and dated 1834; Salon of 1834; Louvre.
This work was a great scandal success. Antoine Etex claims (J. Pradier, p. 28) to have helped Pradier to execute the model "from nature".
Raymond Escholier (A Lover of genius: Victor Hugo, Paris, Fayard, 1953, pp. 138-139) imagines Juliette Drouet posing for the figure of Bacchante in front of Prince Demidoff, "excited like so many other great lords, to have a natural and delirious erotic portrait of his beautiful mistress ”. As for the Satyr: "It is no less obvious that the features of his face are those of Pradier." And it was Demidoff who would have ordered the execution in marble at the end of 1832: "It is enough to refer to the catalog of the Salon of 18341 to find there. in the name of Pradier (James). just before the bust of the King and the bust of Cuvier, this mention: “Satyr and Bacchante, marble group, to Mr. Demidoff.” In fact, the lines of the two figures hardly recall those of Juliette Drouet and Pradier. Furthermore, the work was not yet sold at the close of the Show (see letter 234) and in the official booklet an asterisk printed in front of the title indicates that it belonged to the artist. It will nevertheless be quoted in the catalog of the Demidoff sale of February 26, 1870 (Collection of San Donato. Tables, marbles, drawings, watercolors and miniatures, Paris, 1870, t. I, p. 99, n ° 136). Acquired at this sale by Sir Richard Wallace, it passed in 1904 in the G. Potin collection and in 1940 in the Edouard Labouchère collection. Stopped for export in 1980, it finally entered national collections thanks to a subscription from the Société des Amis du Louvre (see Jean-René Gaborit, "Le Satyre et Bacchante de Pradier" - La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, Chronicle of the Amis du Louvre, February-March-April 1981, t. I, 1981).
There are reductions in bronze (Demidoff sale of April 21, 1870, No. 1581, et al. Verheggen-Pradier), tinted plaster (M.A.H.) and glazed ceramic (M.A.H).
Satyre et Bacchante,© 2007 RMN / René-Gabriel Ojéda
Satyre et Bacchante, © 2007 RMN / René-Gabriel Ojéda
