Parisian auctions: Sotheby’s

24/11/24 - Paris - Art Market - She’s an elegant monkey, with her dress, her wig and her feisty egret. She shouldn’t be showing off her indecent, hairy ankles so much, as she savours a quince chosen from among the fruit lying on the ground (ill. 1). In any case, the contrast between the model’s animality and the refinement of her attire is delicious. Carved in marble in the early 18th century, the work stood in the gardens of the Château de Champs, in Seine-et-Marne, and was later seen as a caricature of Madame de Pompadour - unfairly, as it was carved long before Louis XV’s favourite moved to the château. Champs was converted and even rebuilt for Paul Poisson de Bourvallais, Louis XIV’s secretary and comptroller of finance. The estate subsequently passed through the hands of various owners, including the Duc de la Vallière, who leased it to the Marquise de Pompadour in 1757.

1. France, first quarter of the 18-th century
Guenon Dressed as a Lady or Frisotton
Marble - 153 x 60 x 47 cm
Sale Sotheby’s Paris, 26 November 2024
Photo: Sotheby’s

See the image in its page

The creator of this sculpture is unknown, but it stands out for its size, the quality of its execution and the rarity of its subject. Although singeries were fashionable in the 18-th century, the subject was rarely used in sculpture, but rather in painting and the decorative arts. The Petite and Grande Singerie in Chantilly are famous examples, created by Christophe Huet, who also worked at the Château de Champs: he supervised the decoration of the Salon chinois, whose doors are adorned with monkeys chasing birds.

This monkey is part of the extraordinary collection that Gianni Giordano amassed over thirty years at his villa in Piedmont, where his family cultivated vineyards. Part of it is being sold by Sotheby’s in Paris on 26 November, and while the collector bought pieces from the 17th-century to the 18-th century, with a predilection for Italian decorative arts, the works…