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Joseph CHINARD (1756–1813)
Bust of a child, portrait of François Alexis Guiffrey
Fees include commission and taxes.
Bust of a child, portrait of François Alexis Guiffrey
Original terracotta.
Signed on the front: Chinard à Lyon. Dated on the side: Ventôse, Year XI.
Height: 43.5 cm – Width: 25.5 cm – Depth: 16.5 cm
(Signs of wear, minor damage, chips and visible restoration)
– Commissioned by the Guiffrey family from Chinard; bust completed in 1803. [Receipt from Chinard dated 10 Germinal, Year XI; our invoice: 300 francs].
– Collection of Madame A. Doucet
.– Exhibited at the Exhibition of works by the sculptor Chinard, from Lyon, at the Pavillon de Marsan (Palais du Louvre), November 1909 – January 1910. Catalogue by Paul Vitry. p. 39 no. 46 described as: “– Bust of a child, presumed to be the son of Camille Jordan, MP for the Rhône. Terracotta. H. 0.44 m. Signed: Chinard à Lyon, Ventôse Year XI
.”– Collection of Mr and Mrs Henry Viguier
.– Sale of the collection of Mr and Mrs Henry Viguier in Paris, Mes Ader-Picard, Palais Galliera, 21 March 1968, lot no.
36.– Private French aristocratic collection.
– New Archives of French Art: A Collection of Unpublished Documents, Paris, 1873. Pages 438 and 439
.– Bulletin of the Society for the History of French Art, Paris, 1909. Page 248
.– Catalogue – Exhibition of works by the sculptor Chinard, from Lyon, at the Pavillon de Marsan (Palais du Louvre), November 1909 – January 1910. Paul Vitry. Page 39, nos. 46 and 57
.– Stanislas Lami, Dictionary of Sculptors of the French School in the 18th Century, 1910, vol. I, p. 209.
– Willy Günther Schwark, Die Porträtwerke Chinards, doctoral thesis in art history, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg, 1937, Berlin, Film Kurier, 1937; p. 94 (reproduced).
- Exposé lors de l'Exposition d'œuvres du sculpteur Chinard, de Lyon au Pavillon de Marsan (palais du Louvre), novembre 1909 - janvier 1910. Catalogue par Paul Vitry. p. 39 n°46 décrit comme : “- Buste d'enfant présumé fils de Camille Jordan, député du Rhône. Terre cuite. Н. 0m44. Signé: Chinard à Lyon, Ventose an XI.”
Joseph Chinard (1756–1813) was a leading French sculptor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a transitional figure between Neoclassicism and a more naturalistic sensibility.
Born in Lyon, he trained initially in his hometown before spending time in Italy, where the study of antiquity had a profound influence on his art. He distinguished himself through busts and statues of great psychological subtlety, prioritising the authenticity of expressions and the softness of modelling, particularly in terracotta, a medium he mastered with virtuosity.
Chinard produced numerous portraits of prominent figures of his time, including Madame Récamier, as well as famous allegorical and mythological works, such as his Psyche. His style, both elegant and sensitive, stands apart from rigid Neoclassicism through a more intimate and lively approach to the human figure.
Today, Joseph Chinard is recognised as one of the greatest portrait sculptors of his era, and his works are held in the world’s leading museums.
The subject of this bust is François-Alexis Guiffrey, born in Lyon on 4 Floréal, Year VII (23 April 1799) and who died prematurely in the same city on 18 Ventôse, Year XI (9 March 1803). He was the son of François Guiffrey, a prominent hat-maker and merchant from Lyon, and his wife, née Victoire Aimée Caminet.
The death of this child, aged three, led to the commission of a bust portrait from the sculptor Joseph Pierre Chinard. The archives confirm that the work was modelled from a cast ‘from life’, a particularly poignant process in the case of a posthumous portrait. The speed of execution is remarkable: it took Chinard only twenty-two days to complete the entire work, as evidenced by the receipt signed by the sculptor on 10 Germinal, Year XI (31 March 1803):
“Mr... owes Chinard, sculptor, for work carried out in plaster and clay, namely:
- For modelling from life and executing a child’s bust in clay: 300 #-
For the plaster mould: 36 #
- For casting one in clay, including repairs and the glass case: 24#
Total: 360 #
Paid in Lyon on 10 Germinal Year XI
Signed Chinard”
[Nouvelles Archives de l'Art Français, 1873, p.438]
This receipt reveals that two clay busts were produced: one original “modelled from life and executed in clay” (invoiced at 300 francs) and the other a cast “made in clay” (invoiced at 24 francs) from an intermediate plaster mould (invoiced at 36 francs). The clay cast was sold by us in 2023 (Aguttes Auction, Classical Arts, 23 March 2023, lot no. 221) and is now part of the collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts [Inv. 2024.44].
It is interesting to note that during the 1909 Chinard retrospective, the bust we are presenting here – then on loan from Mrs A. Doucet – was, however, mistakenly identified as the presumed portrait of Camille Jordan’s son. This erroneous attribution is all the more surprising given that the same exhibition featured, under number 57, the clay cast of the same model, correctly identified as Bust of Alexis Guiffrey, aged three (1803).
The similarity between the two works was, moreover, immediately noted by contemporaries such as Stanislas Lami; the 1909 Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de l’art français thus notes (p. 248): “The child’s bust catalogued under no. 46 (son of Camille Jordan) is identical, apart from a few minor variations, to the one designated as no. 57 (child Guiffrey).”
The presentation of this bust today, three years after the rediscovery and sale of its re-cast, marks a decisive step in reconstructing the history of this work, which stands out as the original and most accomplished version of the portrait conceived by Chinard in 1803. A rare and deeply moving testament to Lyon sculpture of the early 19th century, where formal mastery is combined with the intensity of memory and mourning.