RELATED LITERATURE

J.D. Draper/G. Scherf, Augustin Pajou, Royal Sculptor 1730-1809, exh.cat.; New York/Paris, 199ꦬ7, cat.no 78, pp. 200-2002.

Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2007

This fully chased bronze was probably part of a clock, the best known example of which is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Draper/Scherf, op.cit., cat.no. 78).  An unfinished clock of the type discussed by Draper (op.cit.) was documented in the early 19th century and was said to have been created for the Duchesse de Mazarin.  Pajou modelled the figures which were then cast by Martincourt.  Other examples of the composition appear in drawings of the early𓆉 19th century. 

Augustin Pajou entered the Paris studio of Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne and four years later won the Prix de Rome. He was also one of the first students maintained by Louis XV at the Ecole Royale des Elèves Protégés where he exectued a terracotta group of Anacreon and Cupid, now in the Louvre. Many details of this piece were reused in later works. He travelled to Rome in 1752 and four years later arrived in Paris and accepted the Académie Royale in 1759. Pajou gained both Royal and private commissions, particularly for his portrait sculpture. He was also a decorator and made painted wood reliefs for the opera house at the château de Versailles and later decorated the Palais Royale for Louis-Philippe, Duc d' Órleans. During the revolution, he was appointed to a commission which was char🍸ged with preserving monuments.