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Lot Essay
René Frémin came to force under the tutelage of François Girardon (1628-1715) and Charles Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720), the two titans who defined French Baroque sculpture during King Louis XIV’s long reign. In 1694, Frémin won the Prix de Rome for sculpture and the prize came with winnings that supported four years of study in Rome. Afterward, Frémin returned to Paris and entered the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, subsequently exhibiting for the first time at the Salon in 1704. With a grandiose style influenced by Roman Baroque art, Frémin was recruited to work on the ambitious sculpture programming underway at royal residences in Versailles, Marly, Paris, and Rambouillet. However, Frémin left France in 1721 at the invitation of King Philip V (1683-1746) for large scale Spanish royal commissions with sculptor Jean Thierry (1669-1739) at the Royal Palace and Gardens at La Granja de San Ildefonso. With these complete, Frémin returned to France 17 years later and eventually become the Director of the Académie.
Frémin’s masterpiece Flore, was sculpted for the Cascade Champêtre in the Royal Park at Marly as part of a program of six figural groups on the Seasons and Elements, each one conceived by a different leading sculptor of the day. Flore was preserved during the Revolution, housed at the Palais Bourbon, then at Malmaison, and finally placed in the Louvre (inv. RF 265, Salle 102) in 1877 along with two of the other six figures from the set of six. The Cascade Champêtre embodied the classical landscape designs conceived by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708) to glorify the reign of Louis XIV, albeit with a slightly freer approach than those at Versailles.
Like Frémin’s Flore at the Louvre, the present version asserts nearly the same impressive size and abundance of delicately rendered details. Her graceful stance shifts, emphasized by the gently folding sheath, clinging and falling like water. Her ennobling crown of flowers and ivy covered support, adorned with fully flowering blossoms create a sense of refinement and femininity. These qualities, reinforced with the serene expression of her smile, quintessential for Frémin, marked a shift from late Baroque to the more intimate Rococo style.
Frémin’s masterpiece Flore, was sculpted for the Cascade Champêtre in the Royal Park at Marly as part of a program of six figural groups on the Seasons and Elements, each one conceived by a different leading sculptor of the day. Flore was preserved during the Revolution, housed at the Palais Bourbon, then at Malmaison, and finally placed in the Louvre (inv. RF 265, Salle 102) in 1877 along with two of the other six figures from the set of six. The Cascade Champêtre embodied the classical landscape designs conceived by Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1646-1708) to glorify the reign of Louis XIV, albeit with a slightly freer approach than those at Versailles.
Like Frémin’s Flore at the Louvre, the present version asserts nearly the same impressive size and abundance of delicately rendered details. Her graceful stance shifts, emphasized by the gently folding sheath, clinging and falling like water. Her ennobling crown of flowers and ivy covered support, adorned with fully flowering blossoms create a sense of refinement and femininity. These qualities, reinforced with the serene expression of her smile, quintessential for Frémin, marked a shift from late Baroque to the more intimate Rococo style.