Crowned Madonna With Child - Jean Norest 1822–1870 Virgin

Height: approximately 34 cm
Depth: approximately 9.5 cm
Oval pedestal: 9.5 x 13 cm

On the back of the pedestal: J. NOREST Sculp

Observe the delicacy of the faces of the Blessed Virgin and the Infant Jesus. Admire the sculptor’s exceptional craftsmanship in the rendering and draping of the fabrics, as well as the beauty and refinement of their embroidery. Note the precision, delicacy, and subtlety of the two imperial crowns adorning the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus.
This magnificent piece, full of grace and sensitivity, with an ineffable tenderness, is one of Jean NOREST’s rare bronze works and reflects the technical skill and mastery of his work as an ivory carver.

This native of Dieppe—a sculptor, draftsman, and ivory carver—built his reputation on the mastery and finesse of his ivory work. A highly renowned artist, he produced very few bronze works, and this Crowned Madonna and Child is one of his rare pieces, which conveys in bronze all the mastery and expertise of the genius ivory carver that he was…

In 1846, after being admitted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he joined the studio of the Parisian sculptor Louis Denis CAILLOUETTE (1790–1868), taking anatomy classes from Dr. Louis AUZOUX, whose papier-mâché anatomical models were sold all over the world, and frequenting the renowned studios of DAVID d’ANGERS and Albert Ernest CARRIER-BELLEUSE.

In 1851, on Friday, May 14, he married Clémence GARNOT at the Church of Sainte Élisabeth (6th arrondissement). In late February 1852, a little girl named Léontine Éléonore was born to them, but she passed away in Saint-Mandé three and a half months later, on June 12. On December 10, 1860, a baby girl named Louise Victoire was born to the sculptor and his wife. She lived no more than 9 months. Berthe Césarine was finally born on February 21, 1867. In the aftermath of the defeat at Sedan and the capture of Emperor Napoleon III, on September 5, 1870, at the age of 3 years and 7 months, little Berthe breathed her last, not quite a month before her father.
On September 19 of that year, 1870, 400,000 Prussians had Paris surrounded. A long siege was beginning. Jean NOREST, like many Parisian workers, artisans, and merchants, enlisted in the Mobile Guard to defend Paris. But the smallpox that had been spreading for several months worsened; Jean NOREST contracted it and died on October 1, at the age of 48. He was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery, but on May 9, 1878, L. Clémence had her husband and her little Berthe moved, in the same coffin, to the Dieppe Cemetery…

Phough brief, Jean NOREST’s career was built on a solid reputation entirely due to the quality and mastery of his art. The 1855 World’s Fair brought him fame after he received the first-class medal in the Ivory section.
Count Émilien de Nieuwerkerke, Superintendent of Fine Arts and a sculptor himself, took an interest in the ivory carver, whose attractive and masterful drawing style earned him a position as a drawing instructor
for the City of Paris in 1868.

To learn more: https://www.lestresorsdegamaliel.com/accueil/554-madone-couronnee-a-l-enfant.html

© Copyright texts and photos: Les Trésors de Gamaliel