LAURENT DELVAUX (1696-1778) - Lot 80

LAURENT DELVAUX (1696-1778) Study of the head of Hercules For the Palace of Charles de Lorraine (1768-1770) Terracotta H: 27 x W: 20 x D: 14 cm Related works : -Laurent Delvaux, Hercule du Palais de Charles de Lorraine, 1768-1770, marble, H. 288 cm, signed and dated twice Laur. Delvaux. 1770, Brussels, Palais de Charles de Lorraine (formerly part of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, anc. Inv. N°9830. -Laurent Delvaux, Étude de la tête d'Hercule pour le Palais de Charles de Lorraine (1768-1770), terracotta, dim.44 x 27 x 30 cm, Asse, Château de Walfergem. Bibliography : -Alain Jacobs, Laurent Delvaux (1696-1778), Arthena, Paris, 1999, described under no. S269, p.458. During his stay in Rome, Delvaux carefully studied the antiques held in the most important princely collections and produced copies, with or without variations, mostly terracottas, which he then used as models. Among the most famous is the Roman marble of Hercules Farnese, dating from the 3rd century AD.C. Roman marble (currently at the Museo Nazionale in Naples) inspired several versions of the demigod, including a life-size marble statue created in 1722 for Lord Castlemaine (garden of Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, England), a seated Hercules at rest (Brussels, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts, inv. 6296) and, above all, the monumental statue of Hercules adorning the Great Staircase of the Palace of Charles-Alexandre de Lorraine in Brussels, created in 1768-1770. Our terracotta head, whose modelling which reveals all the artist's sensibility, is one of two studies of this part of the work currently on record. It has remained in the artist's family to this day. Provenance - Anne-Françoise Delvaux (1740-1786), daughter of the sculptor, Nivelles - Julie Baugniet (1780-1858), his daughter, Nivelles - Nestor Fievet (1820-1895), his son, Brussels - Louise Fievet (1846-1907), daughter, Brussels - Marie-Thérèse Bricourt (1870-1955), daughter, Brussels, wife of Jules t'Serstevens - By descent