François-Jean Orceau de Fontette (1718-1794);

deposited at the mus🎐ée des Monuments français (between 1795 and 1809);

restituted to Emmanuel de Fontette i🅷n September 1817, second marquis of Till🍎y d’Orceau (1763-1840) advisor to the King, or to Frédéric d’Orceau de Fontette (1766-1839), lieutenant-colonel;

Laigny, sale before 1927 (L. Réau, op. cit.);

Edouard Larcade (1871 ? -1945), Paris;

Schwob, Paris (catalogue Heim Gallery, op. cit.);

Mes R.-G. Boisgirard, G. Heim-Gairac et B. Di🐻llée, Paris, 22 February🤪 1954, lot 108;

Ed💜mond Auguste Courty, Châtillon-sous-Bagneux, from 1969;

Drouot, Paris, 9 December 2002, lot 12;

private European collection

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François-Jean Orceau de Fontette (1718-1794) ;

Déposée au musée des Monuments français (entre 1795ꩵ et 1809) ;

Restitué à Emmanueꩵl de Fontette en septembre 1817, deuxième marquis de Tilly d’Orceau (1763-1840) conse꧅iller du roi, ou à Frédéric d’Orceau de Fontette (1766-1839), lieutenant-colonel ;

Vente Laigny, avant 1927 (cité par L. Réau, op. cit.) ;

Edouard Larcade (1871 ? -1945), Paris ;

Schwob, Paris (cité par le catalogue de la Heim Gallery, op. cit.);

Vente anonyme, Paris, Mes R.-G. Boisgirard, G. Heim-Gairac et B. Dillée, 22 février 1954, lo🐼t 108 ;

Collection Edmond Auguste Co🅷urty, 𓆏Châtillon-sous-Bagneux, depuis 1969 ;

Vente, Paris, Drouot, 9 décembre 2002, lot 12 ;

Collection privée européenne.

A. Lenoir, Musée impérial des monumens français. Histoire des arts en France et description chronologique des statues en marbre et en bronze, bas-reliefs et tombeaux des hommes et femmes célèbres, Paris, 1810, p. 276, cat. 189 (ill.) ;

A. Lenoir, Histoire des arts en France prouvée par les monumens, Paris, 1811, p. 342, cat. 189 ;

A. Lenoir, Musée royal des monumens français ou Mémorial de l’histoire de France et de ses monumens, Paris, 1816, p. 86, cat. 189 ;

C. Marionneau, « Le sculpteur Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne et l’Académie de Rouen », in Réunion des Sociétés des Beaux-Arts des départements à la Sorbonne du 12 au 15 avril 1882, Paris, 1882, pp. 121-157, cité p. 148 ;

L. Courajod, Alexandre Lenoir. Son journal et le Musée des monuments français, Paris, 1878, I, p. 196 ;

Archives du Musée des Monuments français, Paris, t. III, 1897, cat. 18ꦦ9, p. 178, 181 et 290 ;

S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’école française au dix-huitième siècle, Paris, 1910-1911, II, p. 67-68 (cité).

A. Sambon, J. Billiet, L’Art français au service de la science française. Exposition d’œuvres d’art XVIIIe, XIXe et XXe siècles au profit du comité national d’aide à la recherche scientifique du 25 avril au 15 mai 1923 organisée par la Chambre syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, 18 rue de la Ville-l’Evêque, Paris, 192ඣ3, cat. 50, com🧔me appartenant à « M. E. Larcade » ;

L. Réau, Une dynastie de sculpteurs au XVIIIe siècle : Les Lemoyne, Paris, 1927, p. 147, c♏at. 82 (ill. p🀅l. LXXVI, fig. 118) ;

Connaissance des arts, Paris, 15 avril 1954, n°26, p. 57 (ill.) ;

French portraits in painting and sculpture (1465-1800), cat. exp. Lon൲dres, Heim Gallery, 6 juin – 30 août 1969, cat. 25 (ill.), comme « appartenant à📖 E. Courty, Paris » ;

J. Musset, « François-Jean Orceau de Fontette : intendant de la Généralité de Caen (1752-1775), autoritaire « Vice-Protecteur » de l’Académie des Belles-Lettres de Caen », in Histoire et Renouveau. 350^e anniversaire de l’Académie des sciences, Art et Belles Lettres de Caen, 2002, p. 66.

Musée des Monuments Français, Paris, 1793? – 1817 ;

L’Art français au service de la science française, Paris, Chambre ♔syndicale de la Curiosité et des Beaux-Arts, 25 avril - 15 mai 1923, prêté par Edouard Lacarde ;

French portraits in painting and sculpture (1465-1800), Lon�🦋�dres, Heim Gallery, 6 juin - 30 août 1969, cat.25.

Lemoyne was the official portrait sculptor to Louis XV and his court. His portraits of the grandees that surrounded the French king depict a coterie of imposing busts of maréchals, comtes and marquises wearing voluminous official robes or stately armour bedecked with orders and decorations. They are intended as statements of the sitters’ stature and importance in mid-18^th century Parisian society. This extraordinary bust of François-Jean Orceau, Baron de Fontette is a glorious exception to these often-pompous portraits. By contrast, the bust of Fontette shows a man in an almost allegorical guise. His left shoulder is bare, except for a strap which holds a theatrical swathe of drapery that sweeps across his chest. The strap has the suggestion of a mounted cabochon in the middle of Fontette’s chest. The drapery is not decorated with any brocade or lace, and this plainness gives the portrait a timeless quality. As Fontette turns dramatically to his left, alert in his gaze and with a slight smile animating his lips, he gives the impression more of the mythological god Apollo than a French nobleman. Only the beautifully coiffured wig and the veracity of Lemoyne’s portraiture identifies this bust as an 18^th century dignitary, with a difference.

A masterpiece in terracotta modelling

Lemoyne’s excellence as a sculptor is founded on his ability to capture the most vivid likeness of his sitter. Even the courtiers in their finery are depicted with great character and vitality. Lemoyne is able to render a fleeting look or the quiver of a smile in the delicacy of his carving in marble, but the spontaneity of his portraits is best appreciated in his terracotta modelling. This outstanding bust of Fontette preserves all the vibrant tool marks which criss-cross the skin and animate the drapery giving the bust a sense of impasto akin to the brush work on a painting. This textured network of rapid modelling strokes transitions into the bold treatment of Fontette’s wig handled with a broad modelling tool, making deep incisions and delicate touches. Standing back to admire the portrait, Lemoyne’s brilliance in focusing our attention on Fontette’s eyes by cr♍eating strong shadows with his deep modelling is remarkable. This, combined with the deftness with which he captures the slightest of smiles, justifies the assessment of this portrait as one of Lemoyne’s most dazzling.

The importance of Lemoyne’s terracotta bust of Fontette was already well understood in the late 18^th century by the French archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir (176-1839), who was the founder of the Musée des Monuments français. Set up in 1795 to preserve the most important monuments and sculpture from the ravages of the French Revolution, the museum was initially housed in the convent of the Petits-Augustins, Paris and opened to the public in October 1795. It was disbanded after the Bourbon Restoration with many objects reinstalled in churches or absorbed into the Louvre collections. Lenoir described his aim in creating the museum and his hope also to preserve important contemporary sculpture: ‘It is for my own opinion that most of the artists have deposited their most interesting models in the Museum; my project of establishing an eighteenth-century room and, subsequently, another of the productions of living men, flattered them singularly; this is the main reason for the frequent deposits which were made by them at the🌸 Museum’. The bust of Fontette was accepted by Lenoir as one of the 575 works for the mu🥀seum from Fontette’s son, and it was subsequently returned to him when the museum closed.

Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne’s portraits of the court of Louis XV

Louis Réau’s monograph on the Lemoyne dynasty of sculptors records 22 portrait busts of the men and woman who constituted the leading courtiers to Louis XV dating from the mid-1730s. The bust of Fontette is not dated, but it is likely that it was made around the time Lemoyne worked on the bust of Antoine-Arnaud de la Briffe (1699-1777) which is dated 1754 (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris). Lemoyne may have modelled his bust of Fontette at Versailles, or Paris or in Normandy where he worked on his monument to Louis XV in Rouen. This was completed in 1737 when Fontette would have been only around nineteen, so in ♛fact that occasion is too early for the present bust.

As noted above, the superb modelling technique displayed in Lemoyne’s bust of Fontette is exceptional. It can be compared with the very best of Lemoyne’s other portraits made in Louis XV’s court, such as the remarkable busts of the Maréchal de Saxe (Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, inv. J 227) and the Maréchal de Lowendal (Musée Cognacq-Jay, Paris, inv. J🌳 228). All three busts evince Lemoyne’s consummate skill as a modeller and his ability to enliven the character of his sitter. It is also worth noting that none of these terracotta masterpieces by Lemoyne are signed.

Biographical sketch of François-Jean Orceau, Baron de Fontette (Paris 1718 – Rouen 1794)

François-Jean Orceau de Fontette was born in Paris on October 14, 1718. His father was a merchant in Touraine who made his fortune from silk. His mother was from an old noble Touraine family, the Quentins de Richebourg. Fontette’s studies directed him towards a legal profession. In 1738, he purchased the office of advisor to the Parliament of Paris, becoming maître des requêtes seven years later, then Président du Grand-Conseil, before being appointed by Louis XV in 1752 as head of the Généralité of Caen, the regional capital of Lower Normandy. Fontette served in this function for twenty three years as one of the so-called ‘enlightened’ stewards focused on serving the public good, in the manner of Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot♎ (1727-1781). Brilliant, ambitious, and authoritarian, he enacted progressive policies in relation to taxes, agriculture, urban planning and health care. 

From 1760 he installed himself in the magnificent château at Tilly (Calavados), sadly destroyed in 1944. Here he was able to indulge his luxurious tastes, entertaining in a grand manner. In 1763 he married Aimée-Daumesnil de Lignières, having two sons Emmanuel (1763-1840) and Frédéric (1766-1839). Fontette considered himself an amateur de beau and prided himself on having an opinion on everything. He was particularly involved with the Académie des Belles-Lettres in Caen.

At the same time as managing affairs in Caen, Fontette took on additional responsibilities at the court of both Louis XV and Louis XVI. From 1770, he acted as chancelier, garde de sceaux (keeper of seals) and chef du Conseil de Monsieur, or head of the advisors to Louis XVI’s brother, the then comte de Provence, later Louis XVIII (1755-1824). When not in Caen, Fontette lived at Versailles to be close to the comte de Provence, or at his beautiful hôtel particulier on the rue Neuve-des-Mathurins in Paris. Fontette was arrested on 28 November 1793 and imprisoned in Rouen where he 🐼died six months later 🍷at the age of seventy-five.

Lemoyne’s terracotta bust of François-Jean Orceau, Baron de Fontette is amongst his greatest portrait sculptures. It evokes the glamour and aspirations of the ancien régime, representing a leadi♏ng member of the royal court, not as functionary in his official robes, but as a sophisticated courtier in the guise of a mythological character. In this way it can be regarded today as both a seminal 18th century portrait bust and a quasi-mythological subject.