Jacqueline Boccador Collection, 1970's,Paris Joseph Brummer collection (1949), NY Collection of Arthur Curtiss James (1941), NY Henry Daguerre, Commerce de l'Art, Paris (1910) Collection Georges Hoentschel until 1910
The shadow of the Hundred Years’ War hung over French artistic production in the first decades of the 15th century. Paris came under English domination between 1420 and 1436, and more than anywhere else, the conflict led to a certain slug¬gishness in workshops until the 1440s, particularly in the field of monumental statuary. The return of Charles VII and his court to the capital marked a genuine revival for the city. Today, Galerie Sismann offers a unique testimony to this. From the prestigious former collections, carved from a bench of Lutetian limestone, this rare full-length sculpture of a French king, adorned with the essential symbols of the monarchy, is making a splash. Beneath its verist features, Galerie Sismann invites you to recognise a portrait of Charles VII, the sovereign recently highlighted by the Musée de Cluny as part of the exhibition : Les Arts au Temps de Charles VII. Although he often portrayed himself, few portraits of Charles VII have survived. Immorta-lised in painting by Jean Fouquet, there are virtually no surviving sculptures of him. Today, only a fragment of the recumbent statue of Charles VII , extensively restored at the end of the 18th century, provides us with a more or less faithful memory of the sovereign’s physiognomy, whose heavy nose, pronouced nasolabial lines and slit eyes with heavy, rimmed eyelids evoke certain features of our subject, who may thus be the only sculpted representation of King Charles VII preserved to date.
