Clémence Sophie Noyel de Bereins, née Daudignac, known as Cl - Lot 275

Clémence Sophie Noyel de Bereins, née Daudignac, known as Clémence Sophie de Sermézy (1767-1850) Portrait of Mademoiselle Gabrielle Horacie Vitet Terracotta bust 1799 Signed on reverse "Fait par Cl.(emence)/ Daudignac/ Ve N. S (for Veuve Noyel de Sermézy)/ illegible mai ? 1799". Total height 46 cm on a plaster pedestal patinated in imitation of LJ marble Patina wear, accidents and restorations Related work : -Clémence Sophie de Sermézy, Buste de mademoiselle Vitet, plaster, 1799, H: 46 cm, signed on reverse "Fait par Clémence Daudignac, veuve Noyel, au mois de juin 1799", Louisville (USA),Speed Art Museum, n°inv.2018.4. Related literature: -Paul Vitry, "Madame de Sermézy, élève de Chinard", in Bulletin des Musées de France, October 1935 issue, pp.133-134; -Anne Tapissier, Madame de Sermézy. Élève de Chinard, Lyon, Audin, 1936, ill. 26 and 27 and p.44-45; -Phillipe Durey, "Clémence Sophie de Sermézy", in Cat. Exp. Peintres et sculpteurs lyonnais de la Révolution à l'Empire held at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Lyon from November 22, 1989 to February 11, 1990, Delta, 1989, pp.137-144; -Claire Barbillon (dir), Sculptures du XVIIe au XXe siècle, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Somogy éditions d'art, 2017, p.141 and pp.148-159. This charming terracotta bust could be an early version of the portrait of Mademoiselle Gabrielle Horacie Vitet . It has the same facial features and tumultuous curls of hair stuck forward as the bust in the Speed Art Museum, similarly signed on the reverse "Clémence Daudignac, veuve Noyel", both dated 1799. This is an early portrait by one of the first female sculptors of the 19th century, Clémence-Sophie de Sermézy, née Daudignac. A member of Lyon's high society, she appears to have begun sculpting around 1792, after the death of her husband in July 1791. Between 1794/95 and 1799, she benefited from the lessons of the famous sculptor Joseph Chinard, who was active in the same elitist sphere in Lyon. Sermézy's first works were mainly bust portraits - in plaster or terracotta - of personalities from her family circle, such as her daughter Marguerite de Sermézy and members of the Lyonnais intelligentsia, painters Fleury Richard and Pierre Révoil. In the artistic tradition of late 18th-century classical portraiture, the bust bears the visible imprint of its master's lessons, notably in the sophisticated effects of the hair. However, the portrayal of the slightly wide-set eyes still bears witness to a few technical clumsinesses, which are completely erased in the second version of the young girl, whose eyes are so kindly lowered and whose bust is clothed in a charming, fashionable décolleté. Between the two terracotta busts, Chinard's lesson has been fully assimilated (unless the sculptor actually retouched the second version, as was rumored at the time). The second version of Mademoiselle Vitet's bust was directly inspired by the magnificent portrait of Juliette Récamier in patinated plaster presented by Chinard at the 1798 Salon, which he offered to Clémence de Sermézy (Joseph Chinard, Juliette Récamier, patinated plaster, H.72 cm, Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, n°inv. A 2961).