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Title:
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Xavier de Maistre
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Artist: |
Baron Carlo Marochetti
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A portrait
bust by Marochetti from this period is something of a rarity. He was to sculpt
many after his removal to England in 1848, but relatively few in the earlier
part of his career. The subject in this case is peculiarly interesting. Xavier
de Maistre (1763-1852) was the younger brother of the Catholic and monarchist
political theorist Joseph de Maistre. Both were born in Piedmont, but spent
much of their lives in Russia, where Joseph served as Sardinian ambassador to
the court of Saint Petersburg. Xavier was principally a military man, serving with
the Russian army, but he also had scientific and artistic interests, having
been a talented painter, and even having tried his hand at sculpture, though
now mainly remembered as the author of the eccentric memoir A Voyage Around
my Room, first published in 1794. We learn about the bust from Xavier's
letters. On 16 April 1839, he wrote from Paris to the Swiss cartoonist and
author Rudolph Töpffer, to tell him about new machines for the enlargement and
reduction of sculpture: "The
celebrated sculptor Marochetti has done a bust of me which is a very good
likeness, but which is unfortunately colossal. He has promised to get it
reduced using this machine". In the same letter, de Maistre indicates that
he was, like Marochetti, much interested in Louis Daguerre's early experiments
with photography. (R. Töpffer, Correspondance Complète, edité et annotée par
Jacques Droin, vol.IV, Geneva, 2009, p.163) In the following year, de
Maistre wrote also to his nephew about Marochetti's bust, saying : "The
original life-size model was, in the opinion of everybody, and even of my wife,
a masterpiece of resemblance. It has ben reduced to a smaller dimension using
this machine". (X. de Maistre, Lettres à sa famille, vol.III, ed.
et établi par Gabriel de Maistre, Éditions Paleo, 2013, p.209, letter to Éloi
de Buttet, 20 Feb. 1840)
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Material(s): |
Plaster
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Medium: |
Unassigned |
Finish: |
- |
Technique: |
- |
Genre: |
Unassigned
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Location: |
Private Collection, France, , ,
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Colours: |
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Year: |
1839 |
Height: |
0 metres |
Width: |
0 metres |
Depth: |
0 metres |
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Key: |
6285 |
Acc. No.: |
6285 |
Col. No.: |
6285 |
Number of views: |
1064 |
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