A relief of Chinard finally reaches Clermont-Ferrand

26/9/23 - Acquisition - Clermont-Ferrand, Musée d’Art Roger-Quilliot - A work that is essential to understanding the work of one of the greatest sculptors of the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods has finally been delivered to its commissioner, more than two hundred years late! On 25 March 2023, the Musée d’Art Roger Quilliot acquired a high relief in Carrara marble by Joseph Chinard (ill. 1), originally intended to adorn the pedestal of the monument to General Desaix in Clermont-Ferrand, from the auction house Conan-Belleville in Lyon (at a hammer price of €120,000, the low estimate). The funding was shared between Clermont Auvergne Métropole, the Fonds Régional d’acquisition des Musées Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne and the Association des Amis des Musées Auvergne Métropole.

1. Joseph Chinard (1756 - 1813)
The Fame among the Arms (exhibited at the Musée d’Art Roger Quilliot)
High relief in Carrare marble, 155 x 264 x 55 cm
Clermont-Ferrand, Musée d’Art Roger Quilliot
Photo: Didier Rykner

See the image in its page

Although his family came from the lesser nobility of Auvergne and emigrated in 1792, Desaix served the Republic and distinguished himself by his bravery in the Army of the Rhine. Under the orders of Bonaparte, with whom he became close, he took part in the Egyptian campaign before joining the army of Italy. The First Consul won the decisive battle of Marengo on 25 Prairial An VIII (14 June 1800), thanks to the saving intervention of Desaix and the reinforcement of his 6,000-strong light infantry, at a time when the French army was in great difficulty. Unfortunately, at the moment of the decisive charge, Desaix was shot through the heart and died at the height of his glory at the foot of his horse, aged 31. Deeply affected by the loss of "his best general", in his own words, Bonaparte had him buried in the chapel of the Hospitaliers du Grand Saint-Bernard in a tomb sculpted by Jean-Guillaume Moitte. He also encouraged the commissioning of…