Stack's Bowers & Ponterio
January 2014 NYINC Auction - Sess. C-D 13 January 2014
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FRANCE. Inauguration of Fresnes Prison, (1900).
59x80mm silver, by Roty. Maier 105, Jones 324, Baxter 37. Obverse: Triptych, showing: the newly-confined prisoner, the prisoner working at a trade, and his wife and baby as visitors. On reverse, the released prisoner trudges home with wife and child (now a couple years old). The form and composition of the plaquette recall Roty's 1892 plaquette for Christophle, as does the image of a worker at his table. The woman is afforded the dignity of looking like any of Roty's other Art-Nouveau females. The piece is swathed in sadness, yet it is essentially optimistic, through its belief in rehabilitation, and the power of the state to do good, for even the least of its citizens. Roty shows that the art style of his day, although associated with willowy goddesses and silky nudes, could seamlessly modify its formal tools to depict the common man, and convey complex social themes.
French medalists often demonstrated their ability and willingness to produce inventive and extremely attractive pieces for specific persons and institutions. For the many of them who were trained, funded and encouraged by the government, it must have seemed only appropriate, to give something back to society. Pubic funding for the arts, after centuries of primarily religious and plutocratic support, may or may not have made art better, but it did make it more available as a career path, and more accessible by all strata of society. In England, the mission of the Victoria and Albert Museum was substantially in sync with the French system. Faint cabinet friction. MINT STATE.
59x80mm silver, by Roty. Maier 105, Jones 324, Baxter 37. Obverse: Triptych, showing: the newly-confined prisoner, the prisoner working at a trade, and his wife and baby as visitors. On reverse, the released prisoner trudges home with wife and child (now a couple years old). The form and composition of the plaquette recall Roty's 1892 plaquette for Christophle, as does the image of a worker at his table. The woman is afforded the dignity of looking like any of Roty's other Art-Nouveau females. The piece is swathed in sadness, yet it is essentially optimistic, through its belief in rehabilitation, and the power of the state to do good, for even the least of its citizens. Roty shows that the art style of his day, although associated with willowy goddesses and silky nudes, could seamlessly modify its formal tools to depict the common man, and convey complex social themes.
French medalists often demonstrated their ability and willingness to produce inventive and extremely attractive pieces for specific persons and institutions. For the many of them who were trained, funded and encouraged by the government, it must have seemed only appropriate, to give something back to society. Pubic funding for the arts, after centuries of primarily religious and plutocratic support, may or may not have made art better, but it did make it more available as a career path, and more accessible by all strata of society. In England, the mission of the Victoria and Albert Museum was substantially in sync with the French system. Faint cabinet friction. MINT STATE.