Gentleman

Entry

The present pair of bronzes (for the pendant figure, see BK-1954-42) was long viewed as early seventeenth-century works of Netherlandish, Flemish or northern French origin, chiefly on the basis of the figures’ clothing and the genre-like theme.³ Seelig-Teuwen’s research firmly identified the maker as the prominent Parisian sculptor Barthélemy Prieur (c. 1536-1611), an attribution previously put forth by Brière as early as 1949.⁴ On the basis of stylistic comparisons with bronze statuettes verifiably made by Prieur, together with his known works of monumental sculpture, such as the priant of Marie de Barbançon-Cani from 1601 (Louvre), Seelig-Teuwen convincingly ascribed the models of the present pair to Prieur’s name.⁵ Dated circa 1600, subsequent casts in bronze were nevertheless made up until the sculptor’s death in 1611, as has been learned from the inventory of his estate.

Prieur was born into a rural Huguenot family from Berzieux, a town to the east of Reims in the Champagne region.⁶ Little is known about his earliest training. He may initially have worked in Reims. Certain is a trip made to Italy around 1550, with Ponce Jacquio, a fellow sculptor from Rethel, a village somewhat north of Reims, as his traveling companion. Prieur remained in Italy for an extended period of time. During the 1550s, his presence is documented in Rome, where he worked as a stuccatore, thus explaining how he would have gained experience in becoming a skilled modeller in wax. In the same city, he is named as a witness in a judicial matter as Bartholomeus Gallus stuccatorem in 1556. In the early 1560s, we find Prieur employed as a sculptor serving the Savoy court in Turin. By this time an experienced sculptor in bronze, Prieur moved to Paris in 1571, where he was received major commissions to work on tomb monuments. Many years later, in 1585, he was forced to leave the city due to his Protestant faith. In Sedan, a Protestant enclave north of Reims, he developed his craft further. It was probably during this period of exile that he devoted his efforts to producing a series of small bronze art objects that were more readily sellable when based in this relatively isolated city. Prieur’s estate inventory, but also the relatively large numbers of surviving statuettes by his hand, confirm such a shift in his artistic career. This occurred simultaneously with a different, more secular thematic emphasis, motivated by his Protestant faith: classical women prettying themselves, genre statuettes of the type demonstrated in the present cavalier and peasant woman, male nudes and animals. In the 1590s, Prieur caught the eye of the French court, eventually leading to his being chosen as court sculptor to King Henry IV in 1594 and marking his return to Paris. During this period, he sculpted various portraits of the king and his wife, Marie de Médici, and a two-meter-high bronze statue Diana de Versailles of 1602-03.

The contrast between this disparate pair is intriguing in iconographic terms: the man is rendered as an elegant young gentleman, dressed in a close-fitting doublet or jerkin with loose sleeves, shoulder flaps, a raised collar that drapes over the collar of his chemise, and puffed pants affixed to the jerkin’s skirt with laces. His stockings are tied just below the knees with a ribbon or band; the shoes are ornamented with a rosette. On his head, he wears a kind of bowler hat with plume. He turns to the right while handing a pair of gloves to the peasant girl (BK-1954-42) standing next to him. Apparently on her way to market with her fruit-filled basket, she approaches with her head and upper torso turned towards the nobleman. She wears a laced bodice with a plain, upright collar and close-fitting sleeves. With her right hand, she lifts up her wide skirt just enough to ease her pace: a gesture that results in a splendid play of drapery folds at the back of her dress. The peasant girl is wearing a folded headscarf, held in place by a band. She carries a hanging basket on her left arm while holding an apple in her hand, which she extends to the gentleman across from her.

Prieur may have been inspired by engravings with figures like those found in so-called ‘costume books’ or decorating the margins of Jodocus Hondius the Elder’s map of France from 1591, consisting of oval medallions with men and women from the three classes (nobility, citizenry and peasantry), each attired in clothing reflective of his (or her) social standing.⁷ Among these depictions are a Foemina Rustica and a Nobilis Parisiensis, in pose and raiment reminiscent of Prieur’s bronzes.

Prieur’s preference for this theme, comprising two elegant figures from classes, reflects the growing fascination with the ‘lowly’ peasant genre that emerged in these years both at court and in the cities. In Flemish, Dutch and French art of the sixteenth through the eighteenth century, one discerns a clear predilection for themes of this kind, in which the simplicity of rural life is either praised or mocked in depictions and worded descriptions of its more farcical aspects or of various mundane professions (cf. BK-2006-25; BK-1978-36; BK-2006-19). Seelig-Teuwen recently noted the glorification of rural life in Claude Gauchet’s poem Le plaisir des Champs (1583), which addressed the delights of country living versus life in the city.⁸ The gist of these works is often humoristic, at the same time trifling with social and moral values. For member of the upper classes, these images served as negative models confirming their own superiority: tronies, actors, beer drinkers, male and female peasants, beggars, pedlars and street musicians, and farm animals (cf. BK-1969-6; BK-NM-7206; BK-NM-3056; BK-1966-2; BK-1969-7).⁹ Whether Prieur’s figures reflect the same kind of farcical intent, however, remains quite doubtful. The elegant and congenial attitude of both figures towards one another seems to suggest a more erotic tone. The peasant girl’s gesture recalls that of Eve, who seduces Adam into accepting her offer of an apple in the Garden of Eden.

Bronze casts of both statuettes have survived in relatively large numbers to the present day, conveying their popularity. The most recent count comes to fourteen pairs and five individual figures, with significant differences in quality and detailing to be observed.¹⁰ Some entail highly elaborate renderings of the raiment, while the finishing on others is flat and mediocre. Works belonging to this latter group must inevitably be viewed as casts of original bronzes made in Prieur’s workshop.¹¹ The peasant girl occurs with and without the basket.¹² Among extant works known at this time, the best casts are the pair in the Liebieghaus (Frankfurt am Main), the woman in the Huntington Library (San Marino), and the present pair. Accordingly, these works must be deemed original bronzes made during Prieur’s lifetime. On a separate note, the quality of the cast of the Amsterdam Gentleman is somewhat superior to that of its pendant.

Noteworthy is the form of the simple wooden socles accompanying the Amsterdam bronzes; these are identical to those of the Gentleman and Peasant Girl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.¹³ This suggests they may very well be original. It should be noted, however, that the Amsterdam Gentleman’s socle was only added in 1954, after having being removed from another Prieur bronze of the same male figure - the original pendant of the Amsterdam Peasant Girl - at the time of its acquisition from the London art dealer Spero.¹⁴

Frits Scholten, 2024