Decade 1810-1819

Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
​See also :  George III  Turner  French painting < 1860  Music in old painting  Italian sculpture   Mechanical craft ca 1800  French time pieces  Tribal Oceania

1805-1815 Napoléon's Diamond Brooch
2025 SOLD for CHF 3.5M by Sotheby's

A diamond brooch worn by Napoléon as a hat ornament was retrieved by Prussian soldiers in the abandoned carriage of his personal belongings in 1815 after the Waterloo battle and presented three days later to King Friedrich-Wilhelm III.

It is 45 mm in diameter and its central diamond weighing 13.04 carats is surrounded by two circles of mazarin cut diamonds.

It was sold for CHF 3.5M from a lower estimate of CHF 120K by Sotheby's on November 12, 2025, lot 665.

Asking Grok : What is the estimated creation date for that brooch and the assumptions for who was its jeweler ?

Grok thought :
​The brooch, a diamond hat ornament later adapted into a brooch/pendant, has an estimated creation date in the early 19th century . It is assumed to have been crafted by Bernard Marguerite, who served as jeweler to the crown from 1811 to 1815 and had taken over the business of Edme-Marie Foncier (personal jeweler to the Beauharnais family, including Empress Josephine) in 1804. This assumption is based on records of Napoleon's 1805 orders for jewelry, including a ganse and hat button totaling 362,060 francs, with the largest stone (25 carats, paid 180,000 francs) supplied by Marguerite .

1812 Boulevard du Temple by Boilly
​2010 SOLD for $ 4.6M by Christie's

In those happy days when there was no television and no Internet, the entertainment was lived in the streets. Under the Empire, Paris recently awakened to the idea of freedom is a major place for social occupations, nice and varied, of which the painter Boilly is a passionate illustrator.

While the Palais-Royal is the place to go to fashion, Boulevard du Crime becomes the active center of entertainment and amusements. Its real name was Boulevard du Temple, but the Parisians had given it that nickname as a fun for the horrors that the theaters offered to good people.

Boilly observes a large crowd engaged in various activities in front of the entry of Café Turc, boulevard du Temple, in 1812. The costumes can not mistake on the time. This slice of Parisian life is an oil on canvas, 73 x 91 cm, sold for $ 4.6M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Christie's on January 27, 2010.
​
Typical of its time, the Café Turc was both a place of tasting ice creams and exotic drinks, and a garden. Paris enjoyed during the next decades an intense development of dancing gardens, cafés concerts, theme parks and restaurants.

CANOVA
​Intro

Specialist in marble, Antonio Canova sculpts figures and monuments of extreme quality. His final art is preceded by models in clay and plaster.

Through a process developed by the artist, the finish is beautiful and brilliant, reaching the delicacy of a real skin. Canova explained his method of passing a brush dipped in sanded water on the surface and then cleaning with a sponge. The marble remains natural without adding pigments.

The busts of young women suit very well the perfection reached by Canova. From 1811 he proposes to his clients his Ideal Heads (Teste Ideali) to which he usually attributes mythological, historical, literary or allegorical denominations. Some of them are presented to patrons whom he wishes to honor.

1813 Murat
2017 SOLD for € 4.3M by Christie's

During the Italian campaign, Joachim Murat was aide-de-camp to General Bonaparte. In 1797 he visited Antonio Canova in his studio in Rome. The young officer was dazzled by the work of the sculptor in the taste of antiquity. In 1801 he bought him two marble groups on the theme of Cupid and Psyche.

Joachim is a dandy who imagines himself perfectly matching the role of Cupid. In 1797 he seduced Napoléon's youngest sister, Caroline, who was only fifteen years old. His military feats are useful for Napoléon, and he can finally marry Caroline in 1800. Canova becomes the portrait sculptor of the Bonaparte family. The statue of Pauline Borghese, another sister of Napoléon, as a half naked Venus Victrix, finished in 1808, is famous.

At the height of his art, Canova begins his series of Ideal Heads in 1811. Murat becomes king of Naples in 1808. In 1813 he calls Canova to Naples to make his portrait and that of Caroline. The two plasters are kept in the museum of Possagno, the hometown of Canova. The artist returns to Rome to carve the marbles.

Neither of the two marbles had been seen. The portrait of King Joachim had been preserved by the Murat family. This 50 cm high bust in Carrara marble, fully conforming to the plaster, is mounted on a 16 cm high marble pedestal. It was sold for € 4.3M by Christie's on November 28, 2017, lot 714. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

This portrait is convincingly realistic. The face is proud, almost vain. The curls of hair are luxuriantly rendered. Canova used his secret polishing formula to give the skin a supple texture.

The marble portrait of Queen Caroline has not resurfaced.

1814 Peace
2018 SOLD for £ 5.3M by Sotheby's

In March 2012 a marble head is auctioned in London without identification of author, title and provenance. The buyer inspects it after the sale and identifies it as the Bust of Peace carved by Canova in 1814 while he was working on a full length statue on that theme for a Russian minister.

At this time the whole Europe is eager to end the Napoleonic wars. The Pope asks for help from Canova for the repatriation of looted art. The Bust of Peace is promised and then delivered by the artist to a British Lord involved in this project. The identification of the piece was lost by the descendants.

This bust 53 cm high including its white marble base was sold for £ 5.3M by Sotheby's on July 4, 2018, lot 25. The video below shows that its quality is real. It is surprising that no attribution was attempted in 2012.

1816-1817 Helen
2023 SOLD for £ 3.55M by Christie's

Antonio Canova began his series of Testi Ideali in 1811. In that year he carved a bust of Helen for a Contessa Albrizzi. The mythological princess of Troy wears a felt cap in the fashion of antique Greece over a beautiful curled hair. That egg shaped cap may be a reference to Helen's birth  after her mother had been seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan.

The artist carved three remakes of his Helen.  One of them, ca 1816-1817, was presented by him to Lord Castlereagh, as a gratitude from the Lord's efforts to repatriate many artworks looted from Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. The bust is signed by Canova and dedicated to "vicecomiti Castelreghio viro prestantissimo", who was elevated to 2nd marquess of Londonderry in 1816.

Directly coming from the descent of the marquess, this marble bust was sold for £ 3.55M from a lower estimate of £ 2.5M by Christie's on July 6, 2023, lot 33. It is 62 cm high including the 12 cm marble socle.

masterpiece
1814 Tres de Mayo by Goya
Prado

Tres de Mayo by Goya (Prado) : artist's motivation and influences, breakthrough and legacy.

Francisco Goya's The Third of May 1808 (El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid), housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, is one of the most powerful and influential paintings in art history. Completed in 1814, it depicts the execution by French soldiers of Spanish civilians who participated in the uprising against Napoleon's forces on May 3, 1808, following the Dos de Mayo revolt the previous day.
Artist's Motivation
Goya, who had served as court painter to the Spanish monarchy (including under Charles IV and briefly under Joseph Bonaparte during the French occupation), was profoundly affected by the horrors of the Peninsular War (1808–1814). Although he had shown some French sympathies earlier, the brutal repression of his countrymen shifted his perspective toward denouncing war's inhumanity.
In 1814, after Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne and the French were expelled, Goya himself proposed to the provisional Spanish government to create paintings commemorating "the most notable and heroic actions" of the 1808 insurrection against the "Tyrant of Europe" (Napoleon). This resulted in two companion pieces: The Second of May 1808 (the uprising) and The Third of May 1808 (the executions). The works served as patriotic propaganda celebrating Spanish resistance while exposing the savagery of war. Goya's motivation blended national pride with a deeper anti-war sentiment, evident in his related series The Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra), which graphically condemned violence without taking clear sides.
The central figure—a man in white with arms outstretched in a Christ-like pose—symbolizes innocence, martyrdom, and the Spanish people as victims of tyranny. Goya dressed him in white to proclaim innocence, turning him into an everyman hero rather than a specific individual.
Influences
Goya drew from various sources while breaking from tradition:
  • Popular imagery and prints — depictions of firing squads were common in Spanish broadsides and political art during the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Contemporary French works — he may have responded to Antoine-Jean Gros's Capitulation of Madrid (showing the French occupation favorably), subverting heroic propaganda.
  • Religious iconography — the central figure echoes Christ on the cross or in the Garden of Gethsemane, drawing on Goya's earlier religious paintings.
  • Baroque drama — influences from artists like Rubens or earlier Spanish masters appear in the emotional intensity and chiaroscuro (strong contrasts of light and dark).
Unlike Neoclassical history paintings (e.g., by Jacques-Louis David), which idealized heroes in heroic, bloodless triumphs, Goya rejected idealization. He used loose, expressive brushwork, dramatic lighting from a single lantern (creating a theatrical yet immediate effect), and distorted perspective to convey raw emotion and chaos. This marked a shift toward Romanticism and modernity.
Breakthrough
The Third of May 1808 represented a major breakthrough in art:
  • It is often called one of the first modern paintings for its departure from academic conventions: no heroic glorification, focus on anonymous victims, emphasis on psychological horror over narrative clarity, and innovative use of light and shadow to heighten drama.
  • It pioneered anti-war imagery by showing war's brutality without glorifying either side—the French soldiers are faceless and mechanical, emphasizing dehumanization.
  • Painted quickly (in just weeks), its loose technique and emotional charge anticipated later movements like Realism and Expressionism.
Initially, the painting was not well-received or widely displayed (it spent decades in storage or private hands), as it deviated from expected heroic styles. It entered the Prado's catalog prominently only in 1872.LegacyThe painting's impact is profound and enduring:
  • It influenced Édouard Manet's The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867–1869), which borrowed its composition and anti-authoritarian tone.
  • Pablo Picasso drew directly from it in Guernica (1937) and Massacre in Korea (1951), using similar motifs of execution and horror to protest war.
  • It set a template for depicting modern atrocities, emphasizing victims' humanity over victors' glory, influencing 20th- and 21st-century anti-war art.
  • Today, it is celebrated as a timeless indictment of violence, a symbol of Spanish resistance, and a cornerstone of the Prado's collection—one of the museum's 14 most important works (scanned in ultra-high resolution for Google Earth in 2009).
Goya's work transformed how artists portray conflict, shifting from heroic idealization to unflinching realism and emotional truth. It remains a powerful reminder of war's human cost.

The image is shared by Wikimedia.
three may

masterpiece
1814 La Grande Odalisque by Ingres
Louvre

Introduction to Orientalism in 19th-Century French Art
Orientalism in art refers to the depiction of the "Orient"—regions including present-day Turkey, Greece, the Middle East, and North Africa—by Western artists, particularly those from France during the 19th century. This movement emerged as part of the Romantic era, fueled by European fascination with exotic cultures, landscapes, and peoples. French artists played a central role, often portraying the East as a land of mystery, sensuality, violence, and backwardness, which served both artistic and ideological purposes, including support for imperialism. The trend was sparked by increased contact following Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798 invasion of Egypt, which lasted until 1801 and inspired waves of travelers, scholars, and artists. A key catalyst was the French government's publication of Description de l’Égypte (1809–22), a monumental 24-volume work documenting Egypt's architecture, monuments, natural history, and society, which profoundly influenced French aesthetics and popularized Egyptian motifs in Empire-style decorative arts.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867): Never traveling to the East, Ingres drew from literary and artistic precedents to create idealized, erotic odalisques (female slaves or concubines). His La Grande Odalisque (1814, Louvre) features a reclining nude with elongated proportions, blending classical beauty with exotic accessories like a turban and hookah, symbolizing sensual isolation. Works like Odalisque in Grisaille (ca. 1824–34) further explore these themes through monochromatic studies.

​Introduction to Ingres's Orientalism
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a leading figure in 19th-century French art, bridged Neoclassicism and Romanticism through his precise linear style and fascination with exotic subjects. His Orientalist works, inspired by European colonial encounters with the Near East—particularly after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign—often used "Oriental" settings as a pretext for exploring the female nude in erotic, passive contexts. These paintings drew from travel accounts, literary fantasies, and Ingres's imagination, as he never visited the regions he depicted. This approach reflected broader Orientalist tropes: portraying the East as mysterious, luxurious, and sexually indulgent, often to cater to Western male gazes and colonial narratives.
Ingres's Orientalist evolution is vividly traced from La Grande Odalisque (1814) to Le Bain Turc (1862), spanning nearly five decades. The earlier work focuses on a solitary, idealized figure, while the later one expands into a multifaceted, communal scene. Both emphasize sensuality, but the progression shows Ingres refining his motifs—such as elongated nudes, luxurious textiles, and harem interiors—into more complex compositions, blending academic precision with romantic exoticism.
La Grande Odalisque (1814)
Commissioned by Napoleon's sister Caroline Murat, La Grande Odalisque exemplifies Ingres's early foray into Orientalism. The painting depicts a reclining concubine (odalisque) in a harem, nude except for jewelry and a turban, gazing directly at the viewer over her shoulder. Her elongated spine—famously adding extra vertebrae for aesthetic effect—creates a serpentine curve, prioritizing ideal beauty over anatomical accuracy. Surrounding props like a peacock fan, hookah, and shimmering fabrics evoke opulence and indolence, symbolizing Western fantasies of Eastern excess.
Thematically, the work embodies Orientalism as a vehicle for eroticism: the odalisque's pose invites voyeurism, portraying her as sexually available yet passive, a "prize" in a colonialist lens. Ingres fused Neoclassical linearity (sharp contours, "licked" surfaces) with Romantic subject matter, rejecting moral instruction for sensual allure. Critics at the 1819 Salon decried its distortions as rebellious, but it captured the era's fascination with the "Orient" as a site of forbidden desire, uninformed by real Eastern cultures.

​The image is shared by Wikimedia.
La grande odalisque - Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 1158

1814 Complication Watch by Breguet
2012 SOLD for CHF 4.3M by Christie's​

A watchmaker is primarily a physicist. Nothing is simple for reaching the extreme precision required for time measuring scientific instruments. They have to deal with gravity, thermal expansion, and also the irregularities of the sun's apparent motion.

The eighteenth century had highly important mechanics. Abraham-Louis Breguet, micro-mechanical genius, settled into pocket watches the most extraordinary complications of the clocks, and was the inventor of basic concepts such as the tourbillon and the wristwatch.

On May 14, 2012, Christie's sold a Breguet watch for CHF 4.3M from a lower estimate of CHF 800K, lot 230.

This complication piece sold in 1814 has two main dials. It integrates two similar and symmetrical complete mechanisms. The idea of the inventor was to compensate the mechanical resonance, a source of error that was a challenge for the watchmakers. This is the first of three watches made by Breguet on this principle. The other two has been provided to the kings of England and France.

1816 Temple of Jupiter by Turner
2009 SOLD for $ 13M by Sotheby's

An oil on canvas by Turner, 117 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 13M by Sotheby's on January 29, 2009, lot 92.

It is a temple of Jupiter Panellenius (ie friend of the Greeks). This painting is later (1816), but the composition is similar to that of 1808: an animated green leads to a remote monument, flooded with sunlight, which is the strong point of the image. The characters of the English villa were walkers. Those of the temple, dressed according to antique fashion, play a round dance.

Turner made only three paintings inspired by Greece. We must see the influence of the romantic come back to the antique (that at that time influenced also the cloth fashion) and not a political mood, as the movements that would lead to the independence of Greece were just beginning in 1816.

The image is shared by Wikimedia.
The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius Restored

1817 bronze replica of the Laocoon
2026 SOLD for £ 13.6M by Sotheby's

The Hamilton Laocoön is a monumental lifesize Neoclassical bronze (234 x 163 cm) cast in 1817 by French sculptor/founder Auguste-Jean-Marie Carbonneaux (Paris 1790–1843). It is one of only four surviving full-scale bronze versions from the Napoleonic period and was offered as lot 1 in a single-lot sale at Sotheby’s London on 1 July 2026 with an estimate of £ 2M-3M. It sold for £13.6 million ($18.1 million) with premium, setting a record for a Neoclassical sculpture at auction. The video is shared by the auction house.
Commissioner, Bronzier, and Biographies
Commissioner: George Watson-Taylor (1771–1841), a wealthy British Jamaican plantation owner, politician (MP for several constituencies), writer, and art collector. He acquired significant wealth through inheritance and plantations but faced financial difficulties later in life. He commissioned the bronze for £2,000 (a huge sum, roughly $200,000 today) via dealer Alexis Delahante while the original marble was in Paris under Napoleon. Watson-Taylor could not complete payment and consigned it to auction in 1821.
Bronzier: Auguste-Jean-Marie Carbonneaux (sometimes spelled Carbonneau), a founder, chaser (ciseleur), and sculptor from a metalworking family. He took over the family workshop around 1814 and became a pioneer of sand-casting techniques for large-scale bronzes. His workshops were in Paris (rue Plâtre-Sainte-Avoye and rue des Amandiers-Popincourt). He served as a municipal councillor. The Laocoön project elevated his reputation as a Neoclassical master; he died in 1843.
Selection: Carbonneaux was chosen for his innovative sand-casting expertise, ideal for complex, large compositions with contorted figures and delicate elements like serpents. This was during the Napoleonic era when French founders advanced techniques for monumental replicas.
Preparation of the Original Marble and Bronze Technique
The original Vatican marble (a Roman copy, likely of a lost Hellenistic bronze) was seized by Napoleon under the 1797 Treaty of Tolentino and displayed in the Musée Napoléon (Louvre). A high-quality plaster mold was taken there directly from the marble (which had some restorations, e.g., arms).
Carbonneaux used sand-casting (a pioneering method for grand bronzes at the time) rather than the traditional, more laborious lost-wax (cire perdue) process. Sand molds allowed better handling of large, complex forms with undercuts, balance issues, and projecting elements (serpents, arms) that risked cracking in lost-wax. The cast was chased/finished by hand for surface detail. It took months to complete and is stamped CARBONNEAUX.
History of Execution: Commissioned ~1817 from the Paris plaster mold. Watson-Taylor’s financial issues led to its 1821 Phillips auction. Subsequent owners included William Beckford (Fonthill Abbey), the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (Stowe House, North Hall), the Duke of Hamilton (Hamilton Palace, New State Dining Room atop the Farnese Table), and later the Guest family. It has strong provenance tying it to major British collections.
Comparison with the Lost Original Hellenistic Laocoön Bronze
Pliny the Elder described the Vatican marble as a masterpiece (possibly by Rhodians Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus, 1st c. BC–early 1st c. AD), likely a copy of an earlier Hellenistic bronze original (perhaps Pergamon school, c. 200 BC or earlier). Ancient bronzes used lost-wax casting (often piece-mold or direct), allowing hollow, lightweight, dynamic poses with fine surface chasing and patination. The marble version is carved from multiple pieces (despite Pliny’s “single block” note) and shows Hellenistic baroque drama: contorted bodies, emotional intensity, and serpentine coils.
The 1817 bronze is a faithful 19th-century replica of the marble (itself a copy), using period sand-casting for scale and durability. It captures the drama but in bronze’s tensile strength and sheen, closer in medium to the presumed lost original. Ancient techniques emphasized direct modeling and chasing for lifelike skin/musculature; Carbonneaux’s work excels in precision replication and technical ambition for its era but reflects Neoclassical fidelity rather than original Hellenistic innovation.
Other Full-Scale Bronzes from the Laocoön: Execution Quality
Only a few full-scale bronzes exist from the Napoleonic molds:
  • This Hamilton example is praised for its exceptional quality and detail.
  • One in the French Parliament.
  • One at Houghton Hall, Norfolk.
  • A fourth (location less specified in sources).
All derive from the same Paris plaster molds and use similar techniques; the Hamilton one stands out due to its provenance, condition, and historical prominence (e.g., displayed in grand settings). Earlier replicas (e.g., Primaticcio’s 1540s bronze for Francis I, now Louvre-related) used lost-wax and differ in restorations/details. The Carbonneaux casts are considered superior in scale, fidelity, and technical execution for their time.
Other Examples of Modern Full-Scale Bronzes from Famous Monumental Antiques
Neoclassical and later periods saw many monumental bronze replicas:
  • Primaticcio’s casts for Fontainebleau (e.g., Laocoön variant, Apollo Belvedere, etc.) from molds of antiques.
  • 19th-century foundry work often replicated Vatican pieces (e.g., Apollo Belvedere, Farnese Hercules) for museums/palaces.
  • Sand-casting and improved alloys enabled larger, more accurate works, paralleling Carbonneaux’s achievement. These served educational, decorative, and nationalistic purposes (e.g., Napoleon’s museum program).
This Hamilton Laocoön exemplifies the era’s blend of antiquarian reverence, technical innovation, and elite collecting. Its dramatic history—from Napoleonic plunder to British grand houses—adds to its allure.
Carbonneaux's sand-casting innovation was key to successfully producing the monumental, highly complex Hamilton Laocoön bronze in 1817. It represented a practical advancement in early 19th-century French foundry practice for large-scale sculptural work.
Context: Lost-Wax vs. Sand Casting
Traditional lost-wax (cire perdue) casting—dominant for fine art bronzes since antiquity—involved:
  • Creating a wax model over a core.
  • Investing it in a refractory mold (plaster/silica).
  • Melting out the wax.
  • Pouring bronze into the void.
This method allowed direct artistic intervention (retouching the wax) but was labor-intensive, risky for very large or intricate pieces (due to cracking, distortion, or incomplete pours), and less economical for multiples or grand scales. It suited smaller, highly detailed works but struggled with the Laocoön’s intertwined figures, dynamic poses, serpents, and outstretched limbs.
Sand casting (also called sand-mold or piece-mold sand casting) uses compacted sand as the primary mold material. It became more refined in the 18th–19th centuries, especially in France for both industrial and artistic bronzes. Carbonneaux was among the pioneers adapting and perfecting it for monumental sculpture.
How Carbonneaux's Sand Casting Worked for the Laocoön
  1. Model Preparation: A high-fidelity plaster mold/cast was taken directly from the antique marble while it was in the Musée Napoléon. This served as the master model (piece-molded for undercuts).
  2. Mold Creation: Fine silico-clay sand (capable of capturing fine details like musculature, hair, and serpent scales) was pressed and rammed against the model sections. Coarser sand supported the flasks (iron boxes holding the mold halves—cope and drag). The sand was permeable enough for gases to escape during pouring, reducing defects.
  3. Core and Assembly: A sand or plaster-derived core formed the hollow interior. Sections were assembled with gates (for metal flow) and vents. The mold was baked to harden and remove moisture.
  4. Pouring and Finishing: Molten bronze was poured. After cooling, the sand was removed, the piece (or sections) was chased (refined by hand to remove seams, sharpen details, and polish), and patinated. For the Laocoön, complex elements were likely cast in parts and welded/assembled.
Advantages for this project:
  • Better suited to grand scale and complexity without the fragility of wax.
  • Greater fidelity to the plaster model (no wax intermediary for distortion).
  • Efficiency for large works: enabled ambitious commissions like this one, which took months but succeeded where lost-wax might have failed or required more risk/cost.
  • Cost-effective for high-quality results compared to lost-wax at that scale (though still labor-intensive).
Carbonneaux’s expertise allowed the bronze to overcome challenges of balance, contorted anatomy, and delicate projections—making it a “revolutionary feat” and burnishing his reputation.
Broader Historical Innovation
Sand casting had roots in earlier metalworking (e.g., for cannon, pipes, and simple sculptures) but gained traction in 18th–19th century France for sculpture. It built on industrial foundry techniques and became the dominant method in Parisian ateliers (e.g., for Rodin’s later output and many 19th-century multiples). French founders led in refinement, exporting expertise. It facilitated the boom in public monuments and replicas of antiques during the Neoclassical/Napoleonic era.
Carbonneaux was not the absolute inventor but a key early adopter and specialist for artistic monumental work. His Laocoön casts (only four known) demonstrated the technique’s potential for fidelity and ambition, influencing later 19th-century practice. Today, sand casting is less common for fine art (lost-wax or modern variants dominate), but it remains valued for certain large or repetitive casts.
​In short, Carbonneaux’s innovation combined traditional craftsmanship with a more robust, scalable molding process—perfectly matched to the Laocoön’s demands and the era’s technical optimism.

Lost-wax casting (cire perdue) is an ancient, versatile technique prized for its ability to capture fine detail and complex forms in bronze (and other metals). However, it has notable limitations, especially for large monumental sculptures like the Laocoön group—precisely why innovators like Carbonneaux turned to sand casting in the early 19th century.
Key Limitations of Lost-Wax Casting
  1. Scale and Structural Challenges
    Large pieces (e.g., multi-figure groups with extended limbs, serpents, or dynamic poses) require thick investment molds that are prone to cracking or collapsing under their own weight during burnout or pouring. Molten bronze flow becomes harder to control over distance, leading to cold shuts, misruns, or incomplete fills. Shrinkage during cooling can cause internal stresses, warping, or cracks—exacerbated in massive works. The Laocoön’s intertwined bodies and projections would have been extremely risky.
  2. Risk to the Model and One-Off Nature (Direct Method)
    In direct lost-wax, the original wax model is destroyed when melted out. A failed pour means losing the sculptor’s work entirely. Indirect methods (using a mold to create multiple waxes) mitigate this but add steps, time, and potential loss of fidelity. For unique monumental commissions, this risk was a major deterrent.
  3. Labor Intensity and Time
    The process involves many stages: wax modeling, spruing/gating, investment (ceramic shell or plaster/silica), burnout (hours/days in a kiln), pouring, shell removal, chasing, and finishing. For large sculptures, this could take weeks or months per cast, with high failure rates increasing costs. It is more finicky than sand casting for grand scales.
  4. Surface and Defect Issues
    While excellent for detail, large pours can introduce porosity, gas entrapment, or inclusions if venting is imperfect. Thin sections may not fill properly, and post-cast chasing (to remove sprues and refine surfaces) is extensive and expensive on monumental works.
  5. Cost and Material Demands
    High refractory material use, fuel for burnout, and skilled labor make it costly. Wax and investment are single-use in many steps. For multiples or very large editions, it is less economical than sand methods.
  6. Technical Constraints in Historical Context (Pre-Modern/19th Century)
    Before modern ceramic shell improvements or vacuum/centrifugal assists, controlling large pours relied on gravity and experience. Napoleonic-era foundries faced limits in furnace size, alloy consistency, and mold strength—making ambitious replicas of antiques (like the Laocoön) technically daunting.
Comparison to Sand Casting (Relevant to Carbonneaux)
Sand casting addressed many of these issues for monumental work:
  • Scalability: Uses reusable flasks and sand; better for large, complex assemblies cast in sections.
  • Lower Risk: No sacrificial wax burnout of the master model; molds are more robust for big pours.
  • Efficiency: Faster setup for large pieces; permeable sand aids gas escape, reducing porosity.
  • Trade-offs: Slightly less inherent fine detail than lost-wax (requires more chasing), but Carbonneaux’s skill minimized this. It enabled grander, more ambitious bronzes like the Hamilton Laocoön without the same failure risks.
Modern Perspective: Lost-wax (especially ceramic shell) remains preferred for intricate, smaller-to-medium sculptures and high-fidelity art multiples due to superior surface quality and precision. Limitations persist for the very largest works, where sand, 3D-printed molds, or hybrid methods are often favored.
​In the Laocoön context, lost-wax’s limitations in scale, risk, and labor likely made sand casting the practical choice for Carbonneaux’s pioneering effort—allowing a faithful, durable monumental bronze that captured the Hellenistic drama while overcoming 19th-century technical hurdles. This shift helped enable the Neoclassical boom in large antique replicas.

masterpiece
1818 Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer by Friedrich
Hamburg Kunsthalle

The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

GERICAULT

1818 Portrait of the Dedreux Children
2009 SOLD for € 9M by Christie's

A pupil of Carle Vernet and Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Théodore Géricault wanted to express excessive emotions. He chose as themes the officers on horseback of the Napoleonic Wars and the muscular male nudes in the style of Michelangelo.

The fall of the Empire opens a new phase, which culminates in 1819 with The Raft of the Medusa, a monumental work without mercy which symbolizes the true destiny of men, in a heroism devoid of meaning and hope.

In his workshop of the rue des Martyrs, Géricault regularly meets other artists including Carle and Horace Vernet, Delacroix and Dedreux-Dorcy. He makes a few portraits of the two children of Dedreux-Dorcy's brother.

In 1818 Géricault is forced against his will to take an interest in children. He could not recognize the birth of his son Georges-Hippolyte, the result of his incest with the wife of his uncle and declared as the son of the housemaid born from an unknown father.

The portrait of Alfred and Elise Dedreux is an oil on canvas 99 x 79 cm painted in 1818. The boy is 8 years old and the girl two years younger. They resemble each other and are similarly hairstyled and dressed. The girl is standing, dominating this scene.

At that time Géricault sought to convert into a neo-classical style. The double portrait is chilling. The gazes of the children are uncompromising for this world of adults in which they do not enter. The landscape behind them is arbitrary and unidentifiable. Two small flowers fall from the hand of the girl who pays no attention to them. This picture is a double tronie, anticipating by its psychological stiffness the studies of mental patients of the later period of the artist.

The young Alfred was passionate about the images of horses painted by Géricault. He will specialize in this theme under the name of Alfred de Dreux, thus usurping a noble particle.

The portrait of the Dedreux children remained in Elise's family until 1925. From the Saint-Laurent - Bergé collection, it was sold for € 9M from a lower estimate of € 4M by Christie's on February 23, 2009, lot 83. It was bought in that sale by Liliane Bettencourt. The image is shared by Wikimedia.
One of the three portraits of the Dedreux children Gericault painted around 1818

masterpiece
1818-1819 Le Radeau de la Méduse
Louvre

The image is shared by Wikimedia.

Grok thoughts :

Quote
S. C. ANDERSON (SCA) @christianlexus Apr 12, 2020
Théodore Géricault, Le radeau de la Méduse (The Raft of the Medusa). Théodore Géricault, 1819 A massive oil on canvas in the Louvre & a tribute to both our species failings & endurance. Always fascinated by it but nevermore apropos than in these dark days where SOME find rescue.
  • Géricault's 1819 painting "The Raft of the Medusa" immortalizes the 1816 wreck of the French frigate Méduse, where 147 survivors on a makeshift raft endured starvation and cannibalism due to the captain's incompetence, with only 15 rescued after 13 days, sparking public outrage against the Bourbon restoration.
  • Posted in April 2020 during the COVID-19 onset, the artwork's portrayal of desperation and selective salvation resonates with pandemic inequities, as ventilator shortages and uneven aid distribution evoked similar themes of societal abandonment.
  • In response to a thread on coveted artworks, the choice juxtaposes Turner's elegy for a fading era with Géricault's visceral indictment of human frailty, highlighting art's power to critique power structures amid crisis.​
The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819). Oil on canvas, 490 × 716 cm (16 ft 1 in × 23 ft 6 in). Louvre, Paris

< 1819 Hawaii Idol
​2017 SOLD for € 6.3M by Christie's

The destruction of Hawaii's idols resulted from struggles for tribal power without the intervention of the European travelers.

When James Cook visits Hawaii in 1778, the territory is divided. He meets Kalani'opu'u, the king of Kona district. In the following year a violent quarrel with that king results in the murder of the captain. Kalani'opu'u died in 1782, leaving the political power to a son and the religious power to his nephew Kamehameha who thus became the high priest of the god of war Ku also known as Ku Ka'ili Moku.

With this terrifying support Kamehameha manages to conquer the entire territory of Hawaii and starts a dynasty that will last until 1872. He builds for Ku large temples populated by statues with various ritual roles.

A complex social system named Kapu based on taboos protected the elites against middlemen and slaves. When Kamehameha dies an octogenarian in 1819 his favorite wife becomes queen and regent. Women had in the Kapu a subsidiary role that did not please the new regent. She forces the young Kamehameha II to abolish Kapu and to destroy temples and idols. English travelers will manage in the 1820s to collect a few pieces that escaped the iconoclasts, so being the ultimate symbols of a frightening pagan mythology.

A 53 cm high statuette of Ku made during the reign of Kamehameha I was sold for € 6.3M by Christie's on November 21, 2017, lot 153. ​Please watch the video shared by the auction house. It had been detached from a column on which it had served as a guardian in a temple or a necropolis.

The head is oversized above the muscular body whose attitude is powerful. The broad mouth shaped as a horizontal eight is fitted with teeth throughout its perimeter in an expression of total ferocity that suited Kamehameha I's ambitions.