Spencer Alley: Edme Bouchardon - Study Drawings at the Louvre

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Edme Bouchardon - Study Drawings at the Louvre

Edme Bouchardon
Self Portrait
ca. 1745
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon
Study of the Artist's Hand holding a Portfolio
before 1762
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon
Study of the Artist's Hand with Chalk Holder
before 1762
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Edme Bouchardon
Portrait Study of Louis XV
ca. 1748
drawing
Musée du Louvre

"It used to be that the works of sculpture submitted by the competitors for the grand prize, for a sojourn at the school in Rome, were presented to the King. A student of Bouchardon dared to challenge his master, producing an equestrian statue of Louis XV. This work was brought to Versailles with the others; the monarch, impressed by the beauty of this piece, addressing his courtiers, said to them: "It seems to me I'm very graceful on horseback." Nothing more was needed to seal the young man's fate; he was obliged to smash the work himself, and the custom of exhibiting students' works to the sovereign's gaze was abolished. [Laurent Guiard or Guyard (1723-88), while a student, executed a model for an equestrian statue of Louix XV in archaic dress ("à la gaulois") that was admired by the King and by Madame de Pompadour. Bouchardon became jealous, the maquette was ordered destroyed, and Guiard's career suffered.]"

– Denis Diderot, from The Salon of 1765, edited and translated by John Goodman (Yale University Press, 1995)