Allegory Of A River - Pierre-joseph Michel, Attributed To

Original terracotta representing the allegory of a spring or river, and probably constituting a project for a fountain.

Pierre-Joseph Michel (Nancy, 1731 - Paris, 1738) is the elder brother of the sculptor Clodion (Nancy, 1738 - Paris, 1814, whose real name is Claude Michel). His works are rare and his career little known. He would be mentioned in a document of 1783 as "one of Mr. Clodion's best students".
The work of Pierre-Joseph Michel differs from that of his younger by a more compact composition, with accentuated volumes, where the obscure light supported imitates the luminist games of painting "(Musée Cognac-Jay) .

This work is close to terracotta such asJeune femme couchée lisant (1780) or La Bacchante ivre (1780) kept at the Nancy Museum of Fine Arts.

Size : 6.7 - 10.4 - 5.1 in.

Museums and public collections :

• Cognacq-Jay Museum, Paris - La Bascule, bas-relief, terracotta.
• Fine Arts Museum of Nancy, Jeune femme couchée lisant, terracotta.
• Nancy Fine Arts Museum, La Bacchante ivre, terracotta.
• Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio - Une Muse, or Euterpe, marble.

Bibliography :

• AL Poulet and Guilhem Scherf, Clodion 1738-1814, exhibition catalog, Paris, NMR, 1992, pp. 396-404
• Albert Jacquot, Les Adam et les Michel et Clodion, Paris, 1898, p 25-26.