A Pair of Louis XV style Wall Appliqués with Putti and Little Angels

Mag­nif­i­cent, extreme­ly rare pair of large three-light wall appliqués in the style of Louis XV, exe­cut­ed in gilt bronze.

An iden­ti­cal pair of wall lights is held in the col­lec­tion of the J. Paul Get­ty Muse­um, Los Ange­les; see pic­tures and link below.

As with the museum’s pair, there are no clear indi­ca­tions of the work­shop respon­si­ble for their pro­duc­tion. The large back­plate is exe­cut­ed in S‑shaped, inter­con­nect­ed rocaille forms rich­ly adorned with acan­thus leaves, grass­es, and flow­ers. The large cen­tral rocaille is crowned by a volute-shaped pedestal on which a child sits, each in a dynam­ic pose with very fine­ly styled, pinned-up hair and hold­ing a flo­ral gar­land in one hand.

Anoth­er ful­ly sculpt­ed fig­ure — each a small angel — sits at the low­er end of the large C‑shaped rocaille. The three grace­ful­ly sweep­ing arms of the appliqués, shaped as fine­ly chis­elled acan­thus leaves, lead into large can­dle­hold­ers exe­cut­ed in leaf and blos­som form.

The two lights are craft­ed as a true pair fac­ing one anoth­er; both the fig­ures, which vary slight­ly in move­ment and expres­sion, and the back­plates and arms are designed accord­ing­ly.

Par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy is the absolute­ly mas­ter­ful exe­cu­tion of these two pieces. Both the strik­ing qual­i­ty of the rich gild­ing and the fine, three-dimen­sion­al bronze cast­ing — fur­ther ele­vat­ed by the out­stand­ing qual­i­ty of the chas­ing — are excep­tion­al.

Per­son­al com­ment:
Mon­u­men­tal wall lights exe­cut­ed in such out­stand­ing qual­i­ty and in such remark­ably beau­ti­ful con­di­tion are an absolute rar­i­ty on the inter­na­tion­al art mar­ket, and one of the finest pairs we have ever been able to offer in our col­lec­tion …

The present design like­ly dates from between 1745 and 1749. Styl­is­ti­cal­ly, it appears to be ori­ent­ed toward the work of Jacques Caf­fiéri (1678 – 1755) (see lit­er­a­ture).

A styl­is­ti­cal­ly com­pa­ra­ble signed chan­de­lier, though with­out fig­ures, can be found, among oth­er places, in the Wal­lace Col­lec­tion.
A pair of chan­de­liers with acan­thus, birds, and cherubs was made around 1750 for Madame de Pom­padour — one for her bed­room, the oth­er for the Grand Cab­i­net.

Regard­ing the fig­ures, there is a fine exam­ple in a draw­ing by Charles Le Brun (1619 – 1690), ​“Child with Gui­tar”, which is now in the col­lec­tion of the Lou­vre. In the Paul Get­ty Muse­um Col­lec­tion, there is also a pair of fire­dogs each fea­tur­ing a child in a fig­ur­al group, which per­fect­ly illus­trates the styl­is­tic lan­guage of the ear­ly 18^th cen­tu­ry and its influ­ence on the designs of the 19^th cen­tu­ry.

Cap­tion to the pic­ture below: ​“Unknown Mak­er, France, Pair of Wall Appliqués, late 19^th to ear­ly 20^th cen­tu­ry, gilt bronze: The J. Paul Get­ty Muse­um, Los Ange­les, 89.DF.26”

https://​www​.get​ty​.edu/​a​r​t​/coll…