CHRISTIAN DANIEL RAUCH (AROLSEN 1777- DRESDEN...

CHRISTIAN DANIEL RAUCH (AROLSEN 1777- DRESDEN 1857)
Alexander I, Tsar of Russia (1777-1825)
White marble bust of the head slightly three-quartered on a rectangular base resting on a pedestal.
H. 62 cm
(Some light stains on the back).
Model made in 1815.
One of the unsigned copies, the sculptor having received several orders from the entourage of the tsar after his delivery to the sovereign.
Provenance:
Hampel sale, Munich, 2016.
Related works:
- Christian Daniel Rauch, Alexander I, 1818, marble, H.63 cm, signed and dated Chr.Rauch 1818, Nassau Castle;
- Christian Daniel Rauch, Alexander I, 1818, marble, titled Alexander I, signed Chr. Rauch F. 1818, Poland, National Museum of Warsaw, no. 1922052;
- Christian Daniel Rauch, Alexander I, 1818, marble, signed Chr. Rauch F. 1818, Poland, Russia, Pavlovsk Palace, nr.Nr.Yx-249 -VIII;
- Christian Daniel Rauch, Alexander I, signed Chr. Rauch F.1821, Trustees Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth, Derbyshire.
References:
-Ednah D. Cheney, The life of Christian Daniel Rauch (Boston: Lee and Shepard ed., 1893), pp. 7, 79, 80, 95, 146;
-Bernhard Maaz, Nationalgalerie Berlin das neunzehnte Jahrhundert Bestandskatalog der Skulpturen, TOME II,Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Leipzig: E.A. Seemann ed., 2006, pp. 418-620;
-Jutta von Simson, Christian Daniel Rauch, Oeuvre-Katalog, Berlin, 1996, Kat. Nr. 52.1. pp.98-99.
Historical background:
Christian Daniel RAUCH began his training as an apprentice sculptor at the court of King Frederick William III in the 1790s. In 1797 he was appointed valet to the king. Queen Louisa of Prussia saw in Rauch a promising sculptor. Between 1805 and 1811 the young Rauch was sent to Rome to study antiquity as a scholarship holder of the King of Prussia. There he met the sculptors Thorvaldsen and Canova who were to convert him definitively to the neoclassical aesthetic. While the art of portrait sculpture in Prussia was dominated by the court sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764-1850), a decisive turning point occurred in 1810. At that time, Rauch was commissioned to create the tomb portrait of Queen Louise of Prussia. This prestigious commission propelled him to the forefront of official sculptors. Eight years earlier, in 1802, when the German sculptor first met the Russian Emperor Alexander I, who had come to Memel to establish a peaceful relationship with King Frederick William III of Prussia, he was still in training, working as a valet. It was in this capacity that he met the Tsar, not as a sculptor. This first contact was decisive for the artist. It marked the genesis of this portrait, which was painted thirteen years later, in 1815, on the occasion of Alexander I's entry into Berlin after the liberation and defeat of Napoleon. In 1815, Rauch wrote to his friend, the sculptor Friedrich Tieck, that he had been struck in 1802 by the Tsar's appearance, which he saw as a magnificent brother of the ancient Discobolus. This vision did not leave him and remained present in his mind when General Ostermann encouraged him to sculpt the bust of the Emperor. Convinced by Frederic William's praise of Rauch, Alexander I agreed to pose for the sculptor for only an hour and a half, a precious time that he spent writing dispatches. In this short time, the sculptor was able to capture the calm presence and grandeur of the Tsar in the performance of his duties. The ancient influence combined with the sculptor's talent as a portraitist gives the imperial effigy a beautiful presence. The hairstyle and the face of the Tsar are drawn with fidelity and the slight smile lets perceive the character of the man behind his illustrious function. There are different versions of this bust, which has known a diffusion linked to its status of official portrait. We can mention the copy dated 1818 made for the Minister von Stein as well as those nowadays kept in Poland at the National Museum in Warsaw, in Russia at the Pavlovsk Palace and in England at Chatsworth.