Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) Peace holding in her... Lot 174

Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) Peace holding in her right hand the Statue of Plutus, God of Wealth, & in her left hand a torch from which she consumes the instruments of War. Statuette in Lorraine clay Signed and dated "Pajou 1757". H. 31 cm Related work : -Augustin Pajou, La Paix, black stone, pen and brown ink, H. 28.1 x W. 20 cm, Bayonne, Musée Bonnat, inv. NI 117 ; AI1667 Related literature -Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au XVIIIème siècle, Paris, 1911, p. 204; -James David Drapper, Guilhem Scherf, Pajou, sculpteur 1730-1809, cat. exp. exhibition, Paris, Musée du Louvre, October 20, 1997-January 19, 1998, New York, MET, February 26-May 24, 1998, Paris, RMN, 1997, pp. 163-164. This unpublished statuette is important because it bears witness to a commission from the financier and friend of artists Ange-Laurent La Live de Jully (1725-1779) to the sculptor in 1759, whose plaster and marble versions of La Paix have now disappeared. The work was known only through an initial sketch, now in the Musée Bonnat in Bayonne. This elegant statuette, with its sophisticated and erudite subject, is part of the production of small terracottas for connoisseurs and well-informed collectors that Pajou was working with in the late 1750's. It should be noted that our statuette is dated 1757, the year of his return from Italy and two years before the plaster was presented at the Salon. EXPERT: Cabinet Lacroix-Jeannest