?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
HONORÉ DAUMIER Le Comte d'Argout.
Bronze with dark brown patina, circa 1850. 290 mm; 11 1/4 inches (height). Incised with the artist's initials and numbered 14/30, lower verso. With the foundry mark Cire perdue Valsuani, lower verso.
Ex-collection private collection, New York.
Antoine Maurice Apollinaire, Comte d'Argout (1782-1858) was named a Peer of France in 1819 and voted with the moderate right. He was made a minister in Jacques Lafitte's government and in 1834 appointed governor of the Bank of France, a position which he held until his retirement in 1857. In addition to being one of the best-known politicians of his day, d'Argout was also—on account of his prominent nose—one of the bourgeoisie most frequently lampooned by Daumier and other contemporary artists.
Daumier (1808-1879) sculpted a bust portrait of d'Argout in the mid-1830s, which preceded this full-length work, as well as several caricature lithographs that appeared in popular French newspapers.
