A figural torchère
Val D'Osne Foundry
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1864
Materials
Parcel-gilt and silvered cast iron
Measurements
915 mm (Height); 1295 mm (Height)
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Hughenden, Buckinghamshire
NT 428756
Summary
Parcel-gilt and silvered cast iron, a figural torchère in the Egyptian revival style, attributed to Val D'Osne, after a model by Mathurin Moreau, c. 1864. A cast iron figural torchère in the form of a child standing in contrapposto and looking down, holding aloft in the proper left hand a gilt torch fitted with an electric lamp and frosted glass, the proper right hand on hip. The child wears a silvered shendyt (skirt) and gilt armbands, a khat (headcloth), gilt diadem and an embossed gilt sash. On an integral circular base; mounted on a grey marbled column.
Full description
Val d’Osne was a leading French art foundry that produced high-quality cast-iron ornaments throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. Established in 1835 by J.P. Andre Victor, the firm manufactured an extensive range of products from their Haute-Marne ironworks including candelabra and torchères, garden sculpture, architectural furnishings and fountains. Casts could be purchased from catalogues or from the company’s Paris showrooms. Val D’Osne expanded to buy out its competitors Barbezat & Cie and Ducel, taking on their pattern books. Barbezat was known for its collaborations with important artists and sculptors, including the academy sculptor Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912), the designer of the model for this Egyptian revival torchère. Moreau modelled for Barbezat and Val D’Osne from 1849 to 1879 and was a shareholder in the company. Originally marketed in a pair (see Cliveden NT 765997.1 and NT 765997.2), the torchère incorporates several stylistic motifs reflecting the fashions and cultural interests of the time. The figure itself is modelled as a child in the French academic style, but the pose and function ultimately derive from a much older European decorative tradition known as the ‘blackamoor’. In material culture this term was used to describe highly stylised and stereotyped representations of people from the continent of Africa, wearing exotic or orientalist costume, often assuming subservient or literally functional roles. The ‘blackamoor’ motif here is expressed in the Egyptian-revival style, with the child dressed in a glittering gilt costume of that epoch. European interest in Egypt was piqued during the Napoleonic invasion of 1798 to 1801 and the subsequent publication by the French government of the Description de l'Égypte (1809-22) which popularised Egyptian history and culture in Europe. Richly illustrated, the motifs and imagery reproduced in the Description were instrumental to the emergence of the Egyptian Revival style in European decorative arts and architecture. Artistic interest in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries continued throughout the 19th century, as European powers expanded their colonial territories in North Africa and West Asia. The torchère was purchased from the London furniture dealer Angelo Sedley and Co (Accounts, 1 November 1864). Alice Rylance-Watson 2020
Provenance
Purchased from Angelo Sedley and Co., £10.0.0 'for black boy', account book 1 November 1864.
Makers and roles
Val D'Osne Foundry, founder
References
Davis 1991: John Davis, Antique Garden Ornament, 300 years of creativity: Artists, manufacturers & materials, Woodbridge 1991, pp. 275-80.