Workshop of Christian Daniel Rauch (1777–1857)
Bust of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855)
Lot Closed
April 29, 03:52 PM GTNN
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Workshop of Christian Daniel Rauch (1777–1857)
German, circa 1835
Bust of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (1796–1855)
white marble
83 cm., 32¾in.
In May 1821 the celebrated German sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch, a prominent.mes
mber of the Berlin Academy, modelled a bust of the young Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich Romanov, brother to the Russian Emperor, Tsar Alexander I, who was then on a state visit to Berlin. When Nicholas next returned to the Prussian capital in 1829, this t.mes
as Tsar of the Russian Empire, Rauch was again summoned to capture his likeness in marble, adapting his first version to create a portrait that has since become one of the most iconic of the ruler. His austere gaze directed away from the viewer, his lips gently pursed and his hair arranged in short curls crowning his broad forehead, the Emperor appears as the perfect embodiment of his status and power.
The inevitable demand for the Tsar’s likeness among the international aristocracy created opportunities for Rauch and his workshop to carve numerous marble versions of the seminal portrait, with various adaptations in the sitter’s appearance. While the 1821 bust depicts the Grand Duke youthful and beardless, the portrait modelled in 1829, of which marble versions survive in Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, acknowledges the Tsar’s maturity in stronger features bearing a moustache, a receding hairline, and incised pupils intensifying his gaze. Originally bare-shouldered, both portrait types were reworked by Rauch to include draped and armoured shoulders, denoting Nicholas I’s status as a ruler in the neoclassical tradition. Two unsigned busts from Rauch’s workshop showing the Tsar in military dress are housed in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. nos. 1438 and 1436). Interestingly, the design of the pauldron as well as the drapery vary between the two St Petersburg busts, indicating that the model was adapted several t.mes s in Rauch’s workshop. The shoulders of the present bust are different still, but display the same pauldron design as the Hermitage bust formerly in the collects ion of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. A small bronze bust of Nicholas I with shoulders identical to the present bust – though lacking a moustache – was sold at Replica Shoes ’s London on 31 May 2006 (lot 479) with an attribution to Rauch. The quality of carving of the present marble, and its close relationship with Rauch’s model, indicate that it was made by a sculptor active in the master’s workshop. Based on the 1829 prototype, it is likely to have been carved between 1830 and 1845.
RELATED LITERATURE
J. von Simson, Christian Daniel Rauch: Oeuvre-Katalog, Berlin, 1996, pp. 180-181, no. 101 and pp. 276-277, no. 170
The inevitable demand for the Tsar’s likeness among the international aristocracy created opportunities for Rauch and his workshop to carve numerous marble versions of the seminal portrait, with various adaptations in the sitter’s appearance. While the 1821 bust depicts the Grand Duke youthful and beardless, the portrait modelled in 1829, of which marble versions survive in Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, acknowledges the Tsar’s maturity in stronger features bearing a moustache, a receding hairline, and incised pupils intensifying his gaze. Originally bare-shouldered, both portrait types were reworked by Rauch to include draped and armoured shoulders, denoting Nicholas I’s status as a ruler in the neoclassical tradition. Two unsigned busts from Rauch’s workshop showing the Tsar in military dress are housed in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. nos. 1438 and 1436). Interestingly, the design of the pauldron as well as the drapery vary between the two St Petersburg busts, indicating that the model was adapted several t.mes s in Rauch’s workshop. The shoulders of the present bust are different still, but display the same pauldron design as the Hermitage bust formerly in the collects ion of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. A small bronze bust of Nicholas I with shoulders identical to the present bust – though lacking a moustache – was sold at Replica Shoes ’s London on 31 May 2006 (lot 479) with an attribution to Rauch. The quality of carving of the present marble, and its close relationship with Rauch’s model, indicate that it was made by a sculptor active in the master’s workshop. Based on the 1829 prototype, it is likely to have been carved between 1830 and 1845.
RELATED LITERATURE
J. von Simson, Christian Daniel Rauch: Oeuvre-Katalog, Berlin, 1996, pp. 180-181, no. 101 and pp. 276-277, no. 170