Lot 29. French, late 18th century, After a model attributed to Antoine Coysevox, Pacing horse. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000  GBP. Lot sold 245,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

bronze; 83 by 87 by 31cm., 32 5/8  by 34¼ by 12¼in.

Provenance: probably Joseph Depestre, Count of Seneffe and Turnhout, Château de Seneffe, Hainaut, Belgium, by 1791;
thence by descent to his heirs;
probably their sale, 24 October to 17 November 1825;
probably Viscount Mathieu Denis Claire Talon, Marquis of Boulay, until 1853;
by descent to Denis Gabriel Victor Talon and Marquise Carolina Sampieri, Villa Talon, Bologna, circa 1853;
and thence by family descent

Bibliography: onds famille Depestre de Seneffe, 613, fol. 9, Archives de l’État, Mons, 1791;
Petites archives de familles [manuscript], 336 (Famille Daminet), 1, Archives de l’État, Mons, early 19thcentury;
Archivio Talon-Sampieri [manuscript], B290, 6, Bologna, 1825 
X. Duquenne, Le château de Seneffe, Brussels, 1978, p. 181, n. 818, p. 182, n. 825, and p. 186 

Note: As few as four versions of the present horse survive, of which only two measure an extraordinary 89 by 83 centimetres. The spectacular size of the present bronze as well as the rounded Baroque elegance and movement of the model have rightly led art historians to associate the model with a long-lost equestrian monument to Louis XIV that towered over the city of Rennes before the Revolution. Both this bronze and the other large version were once in the possession of the noble Talon-Sampieri family of Italy and were probably inherited from their Belgian ancestor Joseph Depestre, the Count of Seneffe and Turnhout. The high regard in which the model has been held is illustrated by Depestre’s early inventories and estate sale catalogue: “Un Cheval de Bronze, dit le fameux cheval de bronze. Cette piece est unique par toutes ces perfections et beauté.”

The model
This exceptional bronze horse closely parallels an important bronze equestrian monument of Louis XIV which stood in the Place de Parlement in Rennes and was commissioned from the court sculptor Antoine Coysevox on 9 June 1686 and finally erected in 1726. As was the case with so many effigies of the Sun King, the monument was slated for destruction during the Revolution and the bronze reused for the production of cannons. The only remaining vestiges of the original monument, now preserved in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, are the two bronze bas-reliefs made for the pedestal of the statue. They depict the presentation of this project by Jules Hardouin-Mansart to the king (Souchal, op.cit, figs. 49a-b). The appearance of the entire monument, however, does survive through reproductions, such as the engravings by Simon Thomassin (fig.1) and Jean-Baptiste Biard and a gouache executed by Jean François Huguet, which is preserved in the Bibliothèque Municipale at Rennes (Martin, op.cit, p.122, fig.64.). 

Engraving by Thomassin 

The engravings of the monument show that Coysevox’s arrangement of the rear and front legs, a combination of a natural and formal gait, with only the edge of the proper left rear hoof touching the base, is precisely the same as in the present model. Similarly, one long, slightly curled, tress of the mane falls over the right shoulder, while the balance of the mane remains on the left side of the neck and shoulders. The bridle is also comparable, with the exception of the bit; here a simple bridle with a noseband was probably attached and secured by a chain on the outside of the mouth. In both cases the saddle cloth is rectangular with an undulating fringe and the thick wavy hair of the tail is not tied. Compare also the eye sockets, brow, and dilated nostrils as well as the anatomy and voluminous groups of muscles in the early bronze reductions of Fame and Mercury on horseback after the marbles Coysevox executed for the Tuileries in 1701-1702 (The French Bronze, op.cit., no. 41). The relation between the present model and another great lost equestrian statue, François Girardon’s destroyed monument for the Place Louis-le-Grand in Paris of which the design is handed down to us by numerous small scale replicas, has been much discussed in the literature but can probably be dismissed due to distinct differences, including several in both the mane and the tail. (see Seelig, op.cit., p. 211, n. 845) 

Charlé de Tyberchamps, Le Château de Seneffe, Bibliothèque Royale

As mentioned before, four versions of the present model exist. Aside from the present cast, a cast of the same size which was also part of the Talon-Sampieri collection was sold at Sotheby’s Monaco on 24-25 June 1984 (lot 3267), and appeared twice more at Sotheby’s New York on 5-6 December 1991 (lot 23) and 26 January 2007 (lot 284). Differences in their facture, including the use of screws to plug casting flaws and varying levels of afterwork, indicate that the latter version was cast in the years immediately following Coysevox’ design of the monument at the end of the 17th century whilst the present cast, which is cast according to the lost wax method, has mounts for a bridle, and has a large casting aperture underneath the separately cast saddlecloth, probably dates from the late 18th century. The dating of the older cast suggests the model may have come into being by casting the model of the horse for the equestrian monument in bronze. As such it may have functioned as a presentation piece for the King or Hardouin-Mansart or to capitalise on a highly original design for a trotting horse, which had been collector’s items since the early 16th century. Since the present bronze was cast around a century later, it is likely to have been made for a family member or second domicile of Joseph Depestre, Count of Seneffe and Turnhout. 

Vestier, Joseph Depestre, Comte de Seneffe et de Turnbout

The other two versions of the model are of a reduced size and incorporated in equestrian statuettes: one representing Augustus the Strong in the Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden and one with an unknown rider in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. The smaller bronzes display several variations compared to the present bronze; in addition to bearing a rider, they include saddlecloths, a different arrangement of flowers and a raised support for one of the hooves on the terrasse, and a lower level of modelling of the manes at the top of the head but otherwise more elaborately chased detail. The Dresden bronze is significant because it is known to have been commissioned by Augustus the Strong’s agent and architect Raymond Le Plat and was delivered to the elector in 1715. This record provides a terminus ante quem for the model that fits well into Coysevox’ lifetime and indicates that the sculptor did indeed capitalise on his superlative design for Louis XVI’s equestrian monument by offering beautifully made reductions to other clients.  

Coat-of-arms

Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720) became apprenticed to Louis Lerambert after causing furore with a sculpture of the Virgin Mary at only seventeen years of age. At twenty-six he was appointed sculpteur du Roi and joined the army of artists decorating the Louvre. His young wife tragically died after only a few months of marriage causing Coysevox to escape Paris and continue his career in Strasbourg and Lyon, where he carried out major commissions for local noblemen and clergy. He was lured back to Paris by a teaching position at the Académie Royale, of which he would eventually become the rector in 1694, one of the great triumphs of sculpture in the history of art. Once re-established in Paris, Coysevox worked on sculpture for Louis XIV’s foremost projects, including the châteaux of Versailles, Trianon, Marly, Saint-Cloud, and Chantilly. He designed and sculpted the funerary monuments for Mazarin, Colbert, Hardouin-Mansard, Le Brun, and Le Nôtre, some of the greatest men of his time. In addition to numerous busts of the royal family and the destroyed equestrian monument to Louis XIV, Coysevox produced a monumental portrait of Louis XIV Standing for the courtyard of the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, which was hidden during the Revolution and is now in the courtyard of the Musée Carnavalet.  His bronze reductions of the classicalKneeling Venus and the aforementioned Mercury and Fame are amongst the most successful small bronzes from the reign of Louis XIV. 

The provenance
Owing to its provenance from the aristocratic Talon-Sampieri family of Bologna, the present bronze can be connected with a bronze documented in 1791 in the inventory of the Château de Seneffe near Nivelles in Belgium, which was then owned by Joseph Depestre, Count of Seneffe and Turnout (1757-1823). After the death of his parents, Depestre inherited the Château de Seneffe and embarked upon a campaign to enhance the decoration of the castle so that it would rival any residence in the Habsburg Low Countries. In order to do so the Count set out to acquire works of art in several of the major sales of his time, including those of Charles of Lorraine and the Marquise de Pompadour. From 1786 onwards Depestre spent most of his time in Paris, where he assembled a second magnificent collection, consisting of approximately one hundred paintings, which was acquired in its entirety for the Louvre. In addition to collecting painting and sculpture the nobleman amassed a group of scientific instruments, was a bibliophile, and an amateur physicist. As is evident from his interests, Depestre was a highly dynamic individual and forceful businessman. On more than one occasion he put his fortune on the line by speculating with commodities or investing in risky business ventures.  

According to Duquenne, a particularly bad stint during the final years of the Ancien Régime forced Depestre to make the 1791 inventory of the contents of the Château de Seneffe which first mentions the presence of a large bronze horse in the Grande Salle. (Duquenne, op.cit., p. 181 and Fonds Famille Depestre de Seneffe, op.cit.) The inventory sadly does not make clear if Depestre inherited or purchased the bronze, but it is likely to have been acquired in France. In the same year Depestre’s financial problems forced him to flee to Florence. He was declared an émigré and his properties in France and Belgium were confiscated. In an extraordinary coup, he managed to convince his brother Jean-Baptiste to acquire the house and its contents, who kept it in the family until the Count was able to reacquire it in 1802. He continued his collecting at this time as well, as is clear from a further set of inventories. They confirm that the bronze horse was still in the Grande Salle at this point and record the presence of the saddle cloth and the absence of a rider: “1 cheval de bronze de 2 pie 8 pous de hauteur Sur 2¼ d longeur et 11 pouces de largeur couvert d’une valtrasse” (see Petites archives de familles, op.cit.) 

n the following years Joseph Depestre had to sell his property to cover his debts twice more. In 1818 he sold the contents for the third time but died before he could reacquire the lot (Duquenne, op.cit., p. 182). The remaining contents of the Château de Seneffe were put up for auction by his heirs in October/ November 1825. There was clearly still a substantial group of furnishings at this point because the sale took place over a period of thirty-eight days. The bronze horse miraculously survived the Count’s financial mismanagement and was presented in the sale announcement in the Journal de Belgique as one of the most precious works of art in the house. (Duquenne, op.cit., p. 186) A poster announcing the sale found recently in the archives of the Talon-Sampieri family equally mentions “le magnifique cheval de bronze”  (op.cit.). The notarial document drafted on the occasion of the sale shows that most of the collections were acquired by two relatives of the deceased, his nephew Viscount Denis Claire Talon and the Chevalier de Knyff. (Duquenne, op.cit., p. 182) The Talon-Sampieri archives contain a document that substantiates Talon’s activity at the sale and proves that it was he that acquired a bronze horse from Château de Seneffe for 610 florins. Upon the death of the Viscount Talon in 1853 the bronze must have passed to his son, Denis Gabriel Victor Talon, who had married Carolina Sampieri and settled in Bologna in 1849. The present bronze remained in their descendants’ possession until recently. 

The fact that two old casts of Coysevox’ horse emerged from the Talon family collection in the last decades and only one is mentioned in the archival material outlined above suggests that one of the casts has a different provenance or was cast after the earlier version for the family and evaded the family records. If the former is true, the cast could have come into the possession of the family through later inheritance from the French Talon branch, which includes illustrious courtiers such as Omer Talon (1595-1652), advocate and procurator of the King in the French Parliament, Jean Talon (1625-1694), the first Intendant of New France, now Canada, and Antoine-Omer Talon (1760-1811), Lieutenant Chatelet of Louis XVI. Judging by his activity at his uncle’s estate sale, Viscount Mathieu Denis Claire Talon (1783-1853) was an avid collector, who may have been keen to possess both large casts of the horse. His son and his Italian wife and their descendants equally continued to add to their collection during the 19th century. 

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Quarré, ‘La statue equestre de Louis XIV sur la Place Royale’, Mémoires de la Commission des Antiquités du Department de la Côte d’Or, 25, 1959-1962, p. 92; P. Volk, ‘Darstellungen Ludwigs XIV. auf steigendem Pferd’, Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, XXVIII, 1966, p. 77; The French bronze 1500-1800, cat. M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1968, no. 41; F. Souchal, French sculptors in the 17th and 18th centuries. The reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, 1977-1993, vol. I, pp. 198-199 and 210, vol IV, p. 57, no. 49; L. Seelig, Studien zu Martin van den Bogaert gen. Desjardins (1637-1694), Altendorf, 1980, p. 211, n. 845; M. Martin,Monuments équestres de Louis XIV, Paris, 1986, pp. 114-116, figs. 60 and 61; M. Raumschüssel, Barock in Dresden, exh. cat. Villa Hügel, Essen, Leipzig, 1986, p. 53, no. 1; A. Boström (ed.), ‘Coysevox’, The Encyclopedia of Sculpture, New York, 2004

Sotheby's. Treasures, 08 juillet 2015 | 5:30 PM BST - Londres