A sculptor for the decorative arts
Louis-Simon Boizot (after), Sèvres manufactory, Clock “vase Boizot” with a partridge eye background, 1781, Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 7607)© 2008 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Jean-Gilles Berizzi
Excelling in both monumental sculpture and the decorative arts, Louis-Simon Boizot was an artist of many talents. In statuary, porcelain, and bronze, he infused an elegant neoclassicism that defined an era.
Louis-Simon Boizot, Méléagre, Boizot’s admission piece at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, November 28, 1778 (model approved on November 23, 1771), 1778, Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. RF 3000)© 2007 Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Pierre Philibert
Born in 1743, Louis-Simon Boizot grew up at the Gobelins Manufactory. His father, Antoine, was a royal painter, an academician, and a designer for the manufactory; from an early age, Boizot was surrounded by the king’s artists and craftsmen. Trained in the studio of the sculptor Michel-Ange Slodtz (1705–1764), he distinguished himself through his outstanding studies. He received the First Prize for Sculpture in 1763 and subsequently studied in Rome between 1765 and 1770. Accepted into the Royal Academy upon his return, he was formally received in 1778. From Slodtz, Boizot inherited unparalleled technical skill and mastery of drapery. Deeply influenced by his predecessors, he drew inspiration from the works of Falconet, Bouchardon, Pigalle, and the great sculptors of Louis XIV at Versailles.
In 1775, he received a major commission: the fountain of the Croix-du-Tahoir, at the corner of rue Saint-Honoré and rue de l’Arbre Sec. He went on to create numerous freestanding groups and portrait busts, often praised by critics when exhibited at the Salon. He also contributed to the architectural decoration of major monuments, notably the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.
Louis-Simon Boizot (after), Sèvres manufactory (porcelain), The Parnassus of Russia, piece from the centerpiece of Empress Catherine II of Russia, circa 1779, Sèvres Manufacture et Musées nationaux (inv. MNC 23240)© RMN-Grand Palais (Sèvres-Cité de la Céramique/Martine Beck-Coppola)
As the neoclassical movement of the 1770s brought human and animal figures back to the forefront, sculptors were increasingly called upon to serve the decorative arts. Boizot excelled in this field, most notably as director of the sculpture workshop at the Sèvres Manufactory. Appointed to this post in 1773, he held it until 1800, shaping the manufactory’s production in decisive ways. Charged with inspecting the workshops once a week, he corrected and supervised the work of the craftsmen while supplying numerous models—though not every sculpted piece produced during this period can be attributed directly to him.
He designed many biscuit porcelain groups that condensed, in reduced scale, the full art of monumental sculpture. The Parnassus of Russia is among his masterpieces in the genre. Created in 1779 to adorn a centerpiece delivered by the manufactory to Empress Catherine II of Russia, the work unfolds a complex iconographic program supported by a monumental composition.
Louis Simon-Boizot (after), Pierre-Philippe Thomire (bronze maker), Sèvres manufactory (procelain), Grand Vase, commissioned by the Comte d’Angiviller in 1783 for the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, then exhibited at the Château de Versailles in late December 1783 alongside the latest products from the Sèvres Manufactory; transported around 1787 to the Château de Saint-Cloud, in the Galerie d’Apollon, then placed in the Louvre during the Museum’s opening exhibition in 1793, 1783, Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 6627)© 2011 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Martine Beck-Coppola
Boizot’s role at Sèvres was not limited to small sculpted groups: he also produced a great number of models for vases and services pieces. The introduction of hard-paste porcelain at the manufactory in 1769–1770 brought new technical possibilities, which culminated in one of his most ambitious projects: the “Grand Vase.” Commissioned by Louis XVI in 1783 and nearly two meters tall, it was a true challenge for the manufactory and a manifesto of the Louis XVI style as developed by Boizot. It features monumental scale, biscuit bas-reliefs modeled by the sculptor combined with enamel decoration, and gilt-bronze ornaments. These mounts marked the beginning of the fruitful collaboration between bronzemaker Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751–1843) and the Sèvres manufactory. Many other models still bear Boizot’s name today: among them the « vase-pendule Boizot », the « Boizot vase with goat and garlands », and the « Boizot ewer ».
Ferdinand Schwerdfeger (cabinetmaking), Jean-Démosthène Dugourc (after), Louis-Simon Boizot (after), Étienne Martincourt (caster), Pierre-Philippe Thomire (bronze maker), Jean-Baptiste-Godegrand Mellet (gilder), Jean-Jacques Lagrenée (painter), Jacques-Joseph Degault (painter), Piat-Joseph Sauvage (painter), Sèvres Mnaufactory (porcelain), Marie Antoinette’s jewelry cabinet, commissioned by the queen in 1787 and placed in her grand bedroom at Versailles, 1787, Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 5515), deposit at the Château de Versailles© Château de Versailles, Dist. RMN / © Christophe Fouin
Outside the manufactory, Boizot worked closely with the greatest bronzemakers of his time: Pierre Gouthière (1732–1813), Pierre-Philippe Thomire, and François Rémond (1747–1812). For them, he designed and produced numerous models for clocks, candelabra, and relief ornaments. His first major commission, in fact, was a work of decorative art: a clock offered in 1771 by the city of Avignon to its governor, the Marquis de Rochechouart. That same year, he collaborated with Gouthière on the pavilion that King Louis XV had built for Madame du Barry at Fontainebleau, and he continued working for the royal favorite alongside Gouthière for the next two years. For Thomire, he provided numerous models destined for the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and for the sovereigns themselves: several firedogs for Versailles, and the magnificent jewelry coffer of Marie-Antoinette made by Schwerdfeger (1734–1818), among others.
Louis-Simon Boizot (figures after), François Rémond (bronze maker), Dominique Daguerre (marchand mercier), Nicolas Sotiau (clockmaker), Clock with the Study and the Philiosphy, provided by Daguerre in 1788 for the Council Chamber at the Château de Saint-Cloud, 1788, Versailles, Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. VMB 14427.1)© Château de Versailles, Dist. RMN / © Thomas Garnier
The fruitful collaboration between Thomire and Rémond and the renowned marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre also led the bronzemakers to call regularly upon Boizot for models. The figures of Study and Philosophy, created in 1776 for Sèvres, were adapted for a clock « with the Study » executed in 1785 by Rémond for Daguerre and reproduced several times. The same figures reappear on a pair of firedogs made by Rémond (Château de Versailles, inv. VMB 1334.1) and on a pair of oil lamps (J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 88.SB.113), this time under Thomire’s chisel.
A drop-front secretary in our collection also stems from the collaboration between Boizot, Rémond, and Daguerre. This remarkable piece, whose cabinetwork is attributed to Adam Weisweiler (1744–1820), was produced around 1790–1795, likely under the direction of the eminent marchand-mercier. Adorned with rich gilt-bronze mounts chiseled by Rémond, it features on its lower drawer a delicate biscuit-relief frieze after Boizot’s model The Offering to Ceres, today preserved at the Sèvres Manufactory and national Museums.
Adam Weisweiler (cabinetmaking attributed to), François Rémond (bronzes attributed to), Dominique Daguerre (probably under the direction of), Claude Ramey (medalion after), Louis-Simon Boizot (frieze after), Lacquer drop-front secretary, circa 1790–1795, Galerie Léage, former Alphonse then Edouard de Rothschild Collection
Louis-Simon Boizot (under the direction of), The Offering to Ceres, wax model on plaster, 1791, Sèvres Manufactures et musées nationaux (inv. MNC 21702)© Sèvres, Cité de la céramique/Thierry Ollivier
A sculptor to the king, director of the sculpture workshop at Sèvres, and provider of models for the most important bronzemakers of the late 18th century, Boizot emerges as a discreet yet decisive figure in the decorative arts of the period. His work embodies a rigorous, balanced, and erudite vision of the Louis XVI style.
Bibliography:
Musée Lambinet, Louis-Simon Boizot. 1743–1809, Sculpteur du roi et directeur de l’atelier de sculpture à la Manufacture de Sèvres, Somogy éditions d’art, 2001
Tamara Préaud, Guilhem Scherf (dir.), La Manufacture des Lumières. La sculpture à Sèvres de Louis XV à la Révolution, Éditions Faton, 2015
Pierre Ennès, Brigitte Ducrot, Un défi au goût. 50 ans de création à la manufacture royale de Sèvres (1740−1793), Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997
