19th century French school after Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763 - Lot 118

19th century French school after Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810) Paul and Virginie at the cradle Plaster model dating from 1795; cast by Soyer & Ingé circa 1834 Bronze with green patina Minor wear to patina, small traces of oxidation Signed 'Chodet' on the drape falling from the right side of the cradle H. 24.5 cm - W. 28.9 cm - D. 17.4 cm AL-EJ Provenance: Probably the bronze exhibited in 1834 at the Exposition des produits de l'industrie française Soyer et Ingé, October 14, 15 and 16, 1841, lot 45 Related works : - Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810), Paul et Virginie, 1801, plaster, 27 x 19.5 x 29.5 cm, Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique, n°inv.Casier 451 - Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810), Paul et Virginie au berceau, 1802, marble, 22.5 x 29 x 18 cm, Paris, private collection. - Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810), Paul et Virginie, terracotta, mentioned in the sale after death of Chevalier Ferréol Bonnemaison organized by Maitre Lacoste, April 8-16, 1827, lot 193. - Jeanne-Élisabeth Chaudet (1767-1832), Enfant endormi dans un cerceau sous la garde d'un chien courageux qui vient de tuer près de lui une énorme vipère, 1801, oil on canvas, 114 x 134 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, RF 706 . Related literature : -CP Landon, Précis historique des productions des arts, peinture, sculpture, architecture et gravure, tome 1, Paris, imprimerie Didot, 1801, p.27 and p.151, p.360; -C.P.Landon, Nouvelle des arts peintures, sculptures, architecture et gravure, tome second, Société des amis des arts, Paris, impremrie Migneret, an XI, 1802, p.84; - Journal des débats, May 30, 1834, Exposition des produits de l'industrie, pavilion no. 4; - Catalog des bronzes d'art, de cabinet et d'ameublement, dont la vente aura lieu en vertu d'un Jugement du Tribunal de Commerce de Paris, rue des Jeuneurs , 16. le 20, 21, 22,23 et 24 juillet 1841par Me Debergue, avocat, commissaire-priseur rue Saint-Fiacre, 5, Paris, imprimerie Maulde et Renou, 1841, n°11, -Catalog des modèles de pendules, candélabres, groupes, statuettes et objets divers dépendant de la fabrique de MM Soyer et Ingé, le 14, 15, 16 octobre, par Me Debergue, avocat, commissaire-priseur rue Saint-Fiacre, 5, Paris, imprimerie Maulde et Renou, 1841, n°45;-Ss dir. T. Préaud et G. Scherf, La Manufacture des Lumières. La sculpture à Sèvres de Louis XV à la Révolution, Cat.Exp. held from September 16, 2015 to January 18, 2016, édition Faton, 2016, n°259 p.273; -S. Deschamps-Tan and Come Fabre , Sage comme une image, L'enfance dans l'œil des artistes (1790-1850) , catalog of the exhibition held in Le Mans, Musée de Tessé, from February 14 to June 8 2025, then in Bordeaux, at MusBA, from July 10 to November 3, 2025, Paris, Lienart, 2025; cat.3 and cat.5 This rare bronze signed 'Chodet' illustrates a lesser-known aspect of the work of the celebrated neoclassical sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet. Acknowledged as one of Napoleon's of􀏐iciels sculptors and author of the imperial busts distributed throughout the Empire, he reveals himself here as an artist of the intimate, creating a scene of great tenderness linked to his personal life. Entitled of􀏐iciellement Paul et Virginie au berceau, the work depicts two naked sleeping children - a boy and a girl 􀏐illette - clasped together in a couf􀏐in wicker basket in a gesture of mutual love and protection. At the foot of couf􀏐in lies a dozing dog. A melancholy peace emanates from this scene, where innocence mingles with an almost funerary dimension. The title, borrowed from Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's famous novel (1788), which was very much in vogue at the time, transforms a painfully personal scene into a universal symbol of ideal childhood. Antoine-Denis and his wife, the painter Jeanne-Élisabeth Chaudet, lost their two 􀏐illettes in infancy: Amitié Sincère, born in 1794, and Jeanne-Élisabeth, who died a few days her birth. This unspeakable loss is reflected in the couple's work, which sublimates their grief into artistic creations in a fruitful dialogue between sculpture and painting. The work directly echoes Jeanne-Élisabeth's painting from the Salon of 1801, Enfant endormi dans un cerceau sous la garde d'un chien courageux qui vient de tuer près de lui une énorme vipère. Where the painter introduces dramatic tension, danger and the ineluctability of a tragic 􀏐in, the sculptor proposes soothing eternity: the dog, reassured, has fallen asleep in turn. The 2025 exhibition Sage comme une image? brought together the original marble and Jeanne-Élisabeth's painting for the first time in decades, in a poignant face-to-face encounter between two combined sensibilities in the face of unspeakable personal grief. Presented in plaster at the Salon as early as 1795, Antoine-Denis Chaudet's model of Paul et Virginie was immediately commissioned in marble by the So