FRANÇOIS GIRARDON (1628–1715): PORTRAIT BUST OF GEORGES MARESCHAL, C.1700 - 1710

 
  • château de versailles
  • ‘When you acquire an object that you know comes from here, you know you are improving the level of truth’
    Laurent Salomé, Director, Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
     
    Girardon’s Portrait of Georges Mareschal is an incredible tour-de-force in carving. The liveliness of the expression and the texture of the skin and clothes is so elegantly chiselled that it appears as if the bust is modelled in wax, rather than carved in marble.
     
    Mareschal was the surgeon at the court of Louis XIV and, as such, he was extremely close to the Sun King. Girardon was the favourite royal sculptor, and the portrait was likely produced around 1700-1710, when the two men worked together at Versailles.
     
    The story behind this bust is the story of the magic of Maastricht. We exhibited the Bust during our first TEFAF, in March 2020. Until then, the piece was only known through a black and white photograph. When Laurent Salomé, Director of Versailles, walked onto the stand, you could feel the excitement at having rediscovered this masterpiece of the French Baroque.
  • François Girardon

    Troyes 1628 - Paris 1715

     

    Portrait bust of Georges Mareschal, premier-chirurgien to King Louis XIV

    1700 - 1710

    Marble

    Height 64cm, 70cm including socle

     

    Provenance
    • Presumably commissioned by Georges Mareschal, Seigneur de Bièvre (1658-1736)
    • By inheritance to his son, Georges-Louis Mareschal (1685-1747) - post mortem inventory, May 19 1747, “Inventaire aprai le deçai [sic] de Monsieur et Madame [Georges Louis] Mareschal” (private collection, inventory drawn up by the Parisian notary, Perret) […With respect to a white marble bust depicting the late Monsieur Mareschal, First Surgeon to the king, it has not been inventoried and valued, but only mentioned for the record.]
    • Denis-François-Georges Mareschal de Montéclain, King’s Musketeer (1723-94) 
    • Clémentine Georgette Mareschal de Montéclain, who married Charlemagne Augustin Moisson, Mayor of Vendôme (1807-1874)
    • Marie Georges Moisson Mareschal de Montéclain (1836- ?)
    • Achille Georges Marie Ernest Moisson Mareschal de Montéclain (1870-1914)
    • Anne Marie Adeline Georgette Mareschal de Montéclain (1903-1978), who first married (1920-1964) Jacques Christian Georges Tournois
    • Mareschal de Montéclain family, Neuchâtel, until 1989; when purchased by
    • Private collection, New York

     

    Exhibited
    • Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Exposition des instruments et outils d’autrefois, March-April 1936, no. 1093, lent by Anne Marie Tournois (née Mareschal de Montéclain)
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