WORKSHOP OF CHRISTIAN DANIEL RAUCH (GERMAN 1777-1867)
WHITE MARBLE BUST OF TSAR ALEXANDER I, CIRCA 1810
£6,875
Fine Furniture and Works of Art
Auction: 25 January 2017 at 11:00 GMT
Description
carved with head slightly tilted
Dimensions
47cm high
Footnote
Provenance: Russian Works of Art from the Collection of The Late Jan Bethge Esq.
Note: Christian Daniel Rauch was the foremost German sculptor of his day, becoming court sculptor apprentice in 1790. In 1797 he was appointed groom of the chamber on behalf of the King's household. Rauch's talent for sculpting was brought to the attention of Queen Louisa of Prussia who made arrangements for him to be educated at the Academy of Art. He subsequently went onto study in Rome where he became friends with other great sculptors, Canova and Thorwaldsen. In 1802, Rauch accompanied the King and Queen during a visit to Memel to meet with Tsar Alexander. Some years later, Rauch met the Tsar again on the 4th October 1815, when he visited Berlin with the Allies. It is thought that it was on this occasion that the arrangements were made for a portrait bust of the Tsar to be sculpted. An entry from Rauch's diary on the 7th of November 1815 indicates that he began sculpting the bust at 1pm, and according to Fredrich Eggers, the first biographer of Rauch, the Tsar duly attended to his business until he was required to look up for the purpose of the bust, although he remained distracted throughout the sitting.
There are a number of busts of the Tsar known, including those in the National Museum's collection in Warsaw, in Pavlovsk Palace, Chatsworth House and in Skulpturensammlung, Albertinum, Dresden. These vary in date from 1815, 1818, 1820 and latterly in 1832.