Sleeping boy with a basket of fruit
after François Duquesnoy (Brussels 1594 - Livorno 1643)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1625 - 1700
Materials
Beeswax, Glass, Metal
Measurements
77 mm (H)164 mm (W)94 mm (D)
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139598.2
Summary
Wax; sleeping boy with a basket of fruit; after François Duquesnoy (1597-1643); c. 1625-1700. A wax figure of a small sleeping boy lying on his side upon a drapery, his head cradled upon his hands, and resting against a basket filled with fruit. The model is within a rectangular glass and metal box. The design of the model is by François Duquesnoy (1597-1643) and the cast may have been made in Rome in the seventeenth century. One of a pair of similar wax figures.
Full description
A wax model of a sleeping putto, who lies on his side, his left leg crossed over the right, his head cradled in his arms. He lies on a swag of drapery, and also leans against a two-handled wicker basket filled with fruit. The model is set upon a black velvet base, housed within a rectangular case made of glass with a gilt-metal frame. A pair with a similar wax figure of a putto (NT 1139598.1). This beautiful small model is one of a large number of small figures of young boys made by the Italo-Flemish sculptor François Duquesnoy (1597-1643). Duquesnoy was born in Brussels, the son of the established sculptor Jérôme Du Quesnoy the Elder (c. 1570-1641/42), with whom he trained, alongside his brother Jérôme Du Quesnoy the Younger (1602-1654). In 1618 François travelled to Rome on a bursary granted him by the Habsburg Archduke Albert, but after Albert’s death in 1621 he was forced to find ways to make an independent living. As well as religious sculptures for a range of patrons, Duquesnoy restored a number of classical sculptures. In 1624 he was sharing a house with his close friend the painter Nicolas Poussin, and the two young men made extensive studies together of the ancient monuments and sculptures to be seen in Rome, as well as more modern works, including Titian’s Bacchanals, then in the Aldobrandini collection. These three famous paintings, as well as relief sculptures on antique sarcophagi, seem to have been the principal inspirations for the reliefs of gambolling small boys (putti) and little independent figures that Duquesnoy began to make from around 1625. that Duquesnoy began to make from around 1625, together with Nicolas Poussin. His early biographer Giovan Pietro Bellori wrote of how ‘Titian expressed admirably putti of a more tender age and surpassed all others in delicacy. François fell in love with them and translated them into various groups in mezzo relievo, and together with Nicolas Poussin modelled tham in clay.’ From the later 1620s also dates Duquesnoy’s masterpiece in monumental sculpture, the marble statue of Saint Susanna (Rome, S Maria di Loreto). Like Poussin, Duquesnoy was subjected to enormous pressure from the French King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu to leave Rome to work in Paris at the French court. After many delays, he set out in 1643 but died on the journey. Duquesnoy’s reputation if anything grew after his death. During his lifetime his models were copied and adapted and may be seen used in paintings, including early paintings by his friend Nicolas Poussin. Putti in the style of Duquesnoy continued to be popular into the eighteenth century, particularly in eighteenth-century Paris. Duquesnoy’s popularity probably reached its apex during this century, his sculptures, including his little putti, being highly sought after and frequently copied and adapted. King Charles I owned a little terracotta model of a sleeping Cupid that had been bought in Rome; in the c. 1638-39 inventory of the royal collections in Whitehall Palace, the artist was described as 'Francisco fiammingo' and as in competition with the great Roman sculptor Bernini. Duquesnoy’s name, simplified to ‘François Flamand’ or ‘Il Fiammingo’, is found constantly in London and Paris auction catalogues from the period. Although it is possible to identify models as by Duquesnoy, it is extremely difficult to distinguish examples that might be by the sculptor’s own hand from casts and copies by others, especially for smaller sculptures such as the little models of sleeping putti. The model is extremely close to another model depicting a putto on his side sleeping with one leg over the other, considered to be an invention of Duquesnoy (Marion Boudon-Machuel, François Duquesnoy, 1597-1643, Paris 2005, no. Inv. 71.). The only difference is the replacement of the basket of fruit with a heap of drapery. The cast probably dates from the seventeenth century, perhaps even from the sculptor's lifetime. The beautifully modelled basket of fruit is derived from the baskets to be seen in the foreground of Titian’s painting of the Worship of Venus now in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid,but in the seventeenth century in the Aldobrandini collection in Rome where, along with Titian’s two other Bacchanals, it was closely studied by François Duquesnoy and Nicolas Poussin. It is not impossible that the two wax putti at Ham were acquired for the house in the seventeenth century, given the enthusiasm for Duquesnoy's work during the sculptor's lifetime and the presence of an example in Charles I's collection. At Ham House, a series of putti derived from models by François Duquesnoy may be seen clambering around the surrounds of the chimneypiece in the North Drawing Room, made c. 1637-39 (Rowell, Ham House. 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, figs. 69 and 153). However, they do not appear in any of the earliest inventories, so it is perhaps more likely that they were bought by Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (1708-70) who, as a young man, undertook a Grand Tour, travelling between 1726 and 1728 through France, Italy and Switzerland (Christopher Rowell, ‘Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart, as a collector and patron’, in Christopher Rowell, ed., Ham House. 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, New Haven/London 2013, pp. 275-97). The 4th Earl collected a number of Old Master paintings and also Italian and French bronzes (Rowell, ‘Lionel Tollemache’, pp. 294-95, figs. 295-97). The putti are first recorded in the 1844 inventory of Ham House. Jeremy Warren January 2022
Provenance
Possibly acquired by Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (1708-70) in Rome, c. 1727; Ham House inventory, 1844. the Picture Closet, ‘a pair of beautiful models in glass cases’; thence by descent, until acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust. Entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, to which ownership was transferred in 2002.
Makers and roles
after François Duquesnoy (Brussels 1594 - Livorno 1643), artist