03821
CLODION, Claude MICHEL, called
Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle 1738 - Paris 1814L'Escarpolette
The See-Saw
c. 1775
terracotta
group
Dimensions (HxWxD): 17 1⁄2 x 16 1⁄4 in.
signed on base: Clodion
Acc. No.: 1957.16
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Photo credit: Toledo Museum of Art
© Artist : public domain
© Artist : public domainProvenance
- Paris, Baron James de Rothschild
- Paris, Baron Henri de Rothschild
- New York, Rosenberg & Stiebel
- 1957, Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Bibliography
- Museum's website, December 10, 2012
- 1901 Tourneux
Maurice Tourneux, "Les Arts à l'Exposition de 1900: La Sculpture/Moderne," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 25, 1901, p. 40, repr. opp. p. 40 - 1957 Art Quarterly
"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," April-June 1957, Art Quarterly, vol. XX, no. 3, Autumn 1957, p. 323, repr. p. 322 - 1960 Toledo Museum News
Toledo Museum News, New Series, vol. 3, no. 4, Autumn 1960 (also published as French Art 1600-1800), p. 90, repr. - 1967 Watson
F.J.B. Watson, "Eighteenth-Century Painting and Decorative Arts," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 465, repr. (b&w) fig. 14, p. 460 - 1992 Poulet and Scherf
Anne L. Poulet, and Guilhem Scherf, Clodion 1738-1814, Paris, 1992, p. 13, 459 - 2002 Slitine
Florence Slitine, Samson, génie de l'imitation, Paris, Massin, 2002, p. 48, repr. (col.) - 2005 Reich
Paula Reich, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 27, repr. (col.) - 2009 Reich
Paula Reich, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 27, repr. (col.) - 2009 Toledo Masterworks
The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 204, repr. (col.)
Exhibitions
- 1900 Paris
Exposition Universelle de 1900, Catalogue Official illustré de l'Exposition Rétrospective de l'Art Francais des Origines à 1900, p. 311, no. 4720 (L'Escarpolette, terre cuite, par Clodion. Mme. la Baronne James de Rothschild), Paris, Petit Palais, 1900
Comment
- Museum's website, December 10,2012:
With his lively tabletop terracotta sculptures, Claude Michel, known as Clodion, combined the eighteenth-century Neoclassical interest in Greek and Roman antiquity and mythological subjects with the Rococo taste for playful, romantic themes. In Toledo's sculpture, a lusty satyr lofts a nymph into the air on a makeshift seesaw, while little cherubs, or putti, attempt to tip the balance. Seventeenth-century French audiences would have understood this seemingly innocent child's pastime as a metaphor for sexual abandon. The sensuality of the subject is underscored by Clodion's rapid execution, with the marks of his modeling tools and of his fingers still evident in the clay. The "unfinished" aesthetic of his terracotta sculptures, with the natural color of the clay and the emphasis on texture, added to their intimate appeal for the French aristocracy.
In 1762 Clodion traveled to Rome, where he spent the next nine years working and studying the rich array of art available there, from ancient Roman times through the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Clodion's encounter with the small, dynamic terracotta models for the monumental sculptural projects of the great Baroque master Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) may have inspired his own concentration on small-scale work in fired clay. Ordered by the French state to return to France in 1771, Clodion reluctantly left Rome and established a successful career in Paris. Though he worked on monumental public projects in marble, it is his energetic, erotic, and witty terracotta groups like The See-Saw, made for the domestic interiors of private clients, that best reveal his originality.