After Louis-Simon Boizot – Pair of 19th century Portrait Busts of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

After Louis-Simon Boizot, 19^th century

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette

A pair of busts; gilt bronze

Provenance: Arundells, Cathedral Close, Salisbury

Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809) was the pupil of Michel-Ange Slodtz. Having won first prize for sculpture in 1762 with the subject of ‘The death of Germanicus’, he obtained his Diploma for the French Academy in Rome and went there in 1765, where he remained until 1770. Afterwards he returned to Paris, where he lived until his death in 1809, exhibiting regularly at the Salon in the Louvre. From 1774 to 1785 he was Director of the Royal workshops at the Manufacture de Sevres. The images he created of the deposed French monarchy resonated with later generations and were celebrated well into the 19^th century. The haughty elegance of such busts struck a chord with post Napoleonic France as the country grappled with successive rulers and yearned for a more ordered society.