A Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Three-Light Wall Appliques

Description

A Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Three-Light Wall Appliques, After The Model By Jean Louis Prieur.

Each modelled as a putto term figure issuing three laurel cast branches terminating in circular stiff-leaf cast drip-trays and fluted nozzles, beneath a neoclassical pediment and flaming urn.

Designed in the architectural style of the goût grec, these wall lights derive from a drawing by the ‘maître sculpteur’ Jean-Louis Prieur (b. 1732-6 d. 1795), for a similar wall light with a putto figure, executed circa 1770 and sold Sotheby’s Monaco, November 26, 1979.

Louis Prieur, design for an applique with putto, circa 1770.

France, Circa 1870.

One of the leading exponents of the Neo-classical style, Prieur was received as a ‘maître sculpteur’ in 1765, then ‘maître-fondeur en terre et sable’ in 1769.

He initially studied sculpture at the Académie de Saint-Luc, Paris in 1765. The following year, working alongside Caffieri he produced a series of designs for furniture, clocks, vases, wall lights and chandeliers for the Polish king’s palace in Warsaw. This commission led to work for the French royal family, including the bronze mounts for the coronation coach of Louis XVI. Prieur can be considered one of the first professional designers and published several engravings of ornamental designs in the 1880’s, including seven books featuring designs for furniture, vases and arabesques and published six plates of scrolling, foliate friezes entitled ‘Principes de Dessin’. In addition, he produced wallpaper designs for Jean-Baptiste Réveillon.