Demosthenes Dugourc After Luxurious Pair Of Bronze Candelabra Nineteenth

Pair of 19th century candelabra Napoleon III after a drawing of * Jean-Demosthène Dugourc with a large bronze structure finely chiseled and gilded Louis XVI style decorated with a cask pattern of three caryatids connected by garlands flowers surmounted by an antique urn in the shape of an Athenian lion masks pattern from which emerges three arms of light forming cornucopias with foliage scrolls adorned with lion's muzzles, the whole rests on an ebony base decorated with acanthus leaves and a white molded marble base. Good condition, formerly electrified. Dimensions: 43 cm high X 31 cm wide. Rare configuration in candelabra corresponding to the model in torches of Jean-Demosthenes Dugourc preserved in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. The ornamental artist Jean-Demosthenes Dugourc (1749-1825) inspired many artists of his generation. His talent is illustrated in all fields of decorative arts, in the fabrics of Camille Pernon, on the furniture of Georges Jacob, in the projects of his brother-in-law, the architect François-Joseph Belanger, or in the production of bronzes of Gouthière or Thomire. He is appointed draftsman of the Crown Cabinet and steward of the buildings of Monsieur, brother of the king in 1784. His repertoire is a mixture of back to the antique and the nature A model identical to the one presented is preserved in the castle Pillnitz near Dresden. Two other models of torches are kept at the Wallace Collection in London. A similar copy of this pair dates from the Louis XVI period around 1785, and is reproduced in H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p. 286 * Jean Demosthenes Dugourc (1749-1825) was formed by the engraver Gabriel de Saint-Aubin. A stay in Italy and his meeting with Winckelmann, theorist of the neoclassical movement, will definitely influence his taste for antiquity. He became draftsman of the Cabinet of the Duke of Orleans in 1780, then draftsman of the Garde-Meuble of the Crown in 1784. The years 1780-90 are good for Dugourc, he works for all Europe and in particular in Spain, as royal architect for the Escorial, the Prado, the Palace of Alba. He returned to France at the advent of Louis XVIII in 1815.