Nicolas Coustou France, 1658-1733
Further images
This is another important discovery in one of the gallery's recognised fields of specialisation: sculpture.
The authorship of this exquisite terracotta is confirmed in a detailed study, by Françoise de la Moureyre; a leading scholar of Nicolas Coustou and, tout court, of French Baroque sculpture. Our terracotta statuette is referred to by the scholar as the model for the Diana statue in pierre de tonnerre (in ceraunian stone), now lost, which, according to archival sources, was executed in 1703 by Nicolas Coustou on the commission of the Prince Henri-Jules de Bourbon-Condé to adorn the gardens of Chantilly, and, after 1744, subsequently transferred at the behest of his granddaughter Elisabeth-Alexandrine, 'so-called' Mademoiselle de Sens, to the park of her residence at Vilgénis; an important surviving testimony to what remains of an equally significant French princely commission under the reign of Louis XIV.
Provenance
New York, collection of Michael Hall (1926-2020) - according to a label stuck to the base item no. C 1;
California, private collection;
Bonhams, Los Angeles, 13 May 2025, lot no. 137 - attributed to Bernardino Cametti (Italian, 1669-1736);
Paris, private collection.
Unpublished work.
We are grateful to Madame Françoise de La Moureyre for confirming the attribution of the present work to Nicolas Coustou, having examined it in person.
Her detailed study supporting this attribution is available here.