Jacques Lucien Schnegg

Juno 1909

Bronze proof, letter B
Sand cast; no founder’s mark
Signed: L. Schnegg
H. 50, W. 22, D. 15.5 cm

Bibliographie

  • Fréderic Damay, « Lucien Schnegg, sculpteur, sa vie, son œuvre », Etudes touloises, 1997, n°81.
  • Evelyne Helbronner, Catalogue raisonné des sculptures du XIXème siècle (1800-1914) des musées de Bordeaux, thèse de doctorat en histoire de l’art sous la direction de Bruno Foucart, Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2003.
  • Rodin y la revolucion de la escultura: de Camille Claudel a Giacometti, Barcelona, Fundacio La Caixa, 29 octobre 2004- 27 février 2005.

 

Lucien Schnegg’s Juno is related to his Leaning Aphrodite. In fact, the two sculptures present the same woman in different poses. They were most likely conceived as a pair, or constitute two elements of a larger composition dedicated to mythology. While Juno’s haughty air keeps others at a distance, Aphrodite lets in the world around her. Louis Vauxcelles captured the opposition between these two goddesses perfectly in a review in 1909, citing their exceptional form.[1]

Aphrodite dates between 1904[2] and 1905;[3] a plaster of it was exhibited at the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1908, and several bronze proofs have been located, one in the Musée d’Orsay, one in the Petit Palais (a fine arts museum of the city of Paris) and one at the Marjon Collection[4] (Margaret and John Trail), Australia.

Juno dates from 1909. A plaster of it has been in the fine arts museum of Bordeaux since 1934, a bequest of Mme Paul Berthelot, and a marble of the piece is reproduced in a study on Lucien Schnegg by Frédéric Damay, published in 1997 in Etudes touloises. Another bronze proof, also marked with the letter B, joined the collections of the Musée d'Orsay in 2013 (S RF 2013 8).[5]


[1] Louis Vauxcelles, 1909 : « His radiant Aphrodite, his proud and hauty Juno, twenty statues, his magnificent Venus from the Salon of 1906, his busts of René Ménard, Doctor Borrel, and Mme Ellissen are all close to being masterpieces », Hebronner, 2003, p. 904-906.

[2] Rodin, his Collaborators and his Friends, Paris, Rodin Museum, 1957, # 43.

[3] The bronze proof in the Petit Palais is dated 1905.

[4] Elliott, P., After Rodin, French Figurative Sculpture 1900-1940 from the Marjon Collection, Marjon Editions, 2013, n°89.