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Lot Essay
Born in Besançon in 1814, Jean-Baptiste Clésinger (known as Auguste) began exhibiting at the Salon in 1863. He specialised in portrait sculpture and is best known for the colossal bust of Liberty on the Champs de Mars in Paris. He won numerous medals and was created Officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1864. He married the daughter of Georges Sand and moved in fashionable circles during the Second Empire, bringing him many commissions for portrait busts from the celebrities of that period. Portrait commissions aside, the artist favoured the heroines of the ancient civilisations of Greece, Egypt and Rome as subjects for many of his works.
The present bust is a reduction of the full-length figure of Helen which Clésinger executed in Rome in 1864. The foundry Barbedienne cast both the full-length and half-length figures in bronze in varying sizes. The original marble full-length figure of Helen was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1864, though Clésinger had exhibited a bust of the same subject earlier in 1861, which also relates to the present model. Clésinger has chosen to depict Helen of Troy with an idealised classical beauty, but has enlivened the figure by the turn of the head and the realistic movement of the hands and arms.
The present bust is a reduction of the full-length figure of Helen which Clésinger executed in Rome in 1864. The foundry Barbedienne cast both the full-length and half-length figures in bronze in varying sizes. The original marble full-length figure of Helen was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1864, though Clésinger had exhibited a bust of the same subject earlier in 1861, which also relates to the present model. Clésinger has chosen to depict Helen of Troy with an idealised classical beauty, but has enlivened the figure by the turn of the head and the realistic movement of the hands and arms.