JEAN-LAMBERT SALAIE OU SALAYE D'APRÈS FRANÇOIS LEMOT (1771-1827)
Femme couchée ou Femme couchée et plongée dans une douce rêverie
terre cuite, signée et datée sur le devant du lit de repos "L.Salaÿe / 1812"
H. 23 cm (9 in.) ; L. 49 cm (19¹⁄₄ in.)

Bibliographie comparative :
C.-P. Landon, Annales du Musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts, Paris, 1812, pl. 30.
J. de Caso, David d'Angers : l'avenir de la mémoire. Étude sur l'art signalétique à l'époque romantique, Paris, 1988, p. 51, fig. 25.

A TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF A RECLINING WOMAN, SIGNED AND DATED BY JEAN-LAMBERT SALAIE OR SALAYE AFTER FRANÇOIS LEMOT (1771-1827)

Although we find the name Jean-Lambert Salée (1788-1833) spelt in different ways (Salaÿe, Salaie), this terracotta is signed and dated "L. Salaÿe 1812". Best known for his busts, he was a student of the Lyon sculptor François-Frédéric Lemot (1772-1827).

After winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1790, Lemot went to Italy before being recalled to France in 1793, where he continued his career, punctuated by major official commissions such as the equestrian statue of Henri IV on the Pont Neuf, Paris, 1818, and that of Louis XIV for the Place Bellecour, Lyon, 1820. At the Salon of 1812, the sculptor presented a marble: Une femme couchée et plongée dans une douce rêverie (A reclining woman in a sweet reverie). In the Annales du Musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts published the same year, the work was described by Charles-Paul Landon, who praised "the nobility of the style, the elegance of the forms and the lightness of the drapery". An engraving by Marie-Pauline Soyer (C.-P. Landon, Annales..., 1812, pl. 30) and a drawing by Lemot (Christie's, New York, 11 December 2012, lot 180) have survived.
Our terracotta shows that one of the master's pupils, Salée, immediately adopted one of his models, with the exception of the treatment of the bed frame and the base.