Cherubs Playing with a Swan

1672-1673

Jean-Baptiste Tuby I

Associated Names
Jean-Baptiste Tuby I
Artist, French, 1635 - 1700
Two chubby, winged children hold onto a swan with its wings thrust back, beak open, and long neck curving up in this freestanding sculpture, which was originally a fountain cast in iron. The cherubs and swan are on a bunched-up cloth on a disk fluted like a seashell. In this photograph, the swan’s body is angled to our right. One cherub stands behind the swan to our left, and the other lies on his back with one hand and foot lifted, facing the swan. Both cherubs have caps of curly hair and short wings. Each has a strap across their chest, and a quiver with arrows lies next to the prone cherub. The sculpture rests on a pale peach-colored stone pedestal carved with a band of layered leaves around the middle. The base stands in a shallow basin of water. The fountain is photographed in a bright space with white marble columns and floors.

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The fountains in the Garden Courts on the Main Floor of the West Building were originally made for the vast garden laid out for King Louis XIV of France (1638–1715) at his château of Versailles. The one in the East Garden Court, by Pierre Legros I, consists of two cherubs sitting in a shell and together holding a lyre, an attribute of the sun god Apollo, whom Louis XIV took as a symbol. In the West Garden Court sculpture by Jean-Baptist Tuby I, the cherubs wrestle playfully with a swan, another emblem of Apollo. The quiver of arrows in each fountain is an attribute of Cupid, the infant god of love.

These sculptures were created between 1672 and 1674 for a secluded grove on the grounds of Versailles called the Théâtre d'Eau, shaped as a theater with jets and streams of water as the performers. Four fountains, including the two now in Washington, stood in niches carved into a curving wall of greenery that formed a theater backdrop against a low hill. (The other two, Cherubs with a Griffin by Benoît Massou and Cherubs with a Crayfish by Jacques Houzeau, are lost; the only other sculpture known to survive from the Théâtre d'Eau is the bronze Cupid Drawing an Arrow by Gaspard Marsy, now in the gardens of the Grand Trianon at Versailles). Between these fountains, water cascaded down channels from the top of the hill to spill into pools on the "stage." Lead was the preferred medium for fountain figures because it resists corrosion, takes gilding easily, and can be cast relatively quickly. This was an advantage for a patron like Louis XIV, who wanted many fine sculptures produced in a short time.

The king and his powerful artistic director, the painter and art theorist Charles Le Brun (1619–1690), intended all the sculptures at Versailles to resemble one another in style. For this reason it may be difficult to distinguish the work of one sculptor from another, except in rare cases where the sculptor managed to maintain an individual style. The names of the Versailles artists are known through old descriptions, prints, guidebooks, and archival documents. In the case of the National Gallery's two fountains, preliminary design drawings by Le Brun have survived. While the sculptures generally follow these, differences suggest the artists were allowed to exert some independence.

After the death of Louis XIV the Théâtre d'Eau, expensive to maintain, fell into disrepair. The sculptures must have been removed by 1756, when the Théâtre was described as "completely destroyed," with nothing left but the surrounding pathways. The sculptures by Tuby and Legros passed through various private collections—in the twentieth century, reportedly including that of the Grand Duchess Anastasia (cousin of the more famous Anastasia, daughter of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia), before their acquisition by the A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust in 1940. Placed in the Garden Courts, the fountains enliven the settings where Gallery visitors can rest and relax, providing the same enjoyment as they did for Louis XIV and his courtiers.

The sculptor Pierre Legros I, father of another important sculptor also called Pierre, came from the French town of Chartres, renowned for its cathedral. Jean-Baptiste Tuby I, born in Rome but with a French father, was a leading sculptor on the team of artists at Versailles. He became close to the artistic director Le Brun, acquiring some of his paintings and marrying his niece. Tuby's son also became a sculptor.

On View
West Building, Main Floor, West Garden Court

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    lead with traces of gilding

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 119 x 150 cm (46 7/8 x 59 1/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1940.1.15

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Installed 1673 at Versailles by Louis XIV, King of France [1638-1715]; dismantled by 1756.[1] (sale, Hôtel Drouot, salle no. 10, Paris, 29 December 1930, no. 86 [a pair with NGA 1940.1.16]).[2] (Paul Gouvert, Paris);[3] purchased 1940 through (Arnold Seligman, Rey & Co., New York) by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh, for NGA.

[1] Blondel, Jacques-François. Architecture françoise, ou, Recueil des plans, elevations, coupes et profils des e´glises, maisons royales, palais, hôtels & edifices les plus considerables de Paris. 8 vols. Paris, 1752-1756. Reprint as L’architecture français, dite Le très grand Blondel. 8 vols. Paris, 2009: 4:108, 111.

[2] According to the catalogue of the 1937 exhibition in Paris in which the sculpture appeared with NGA 1940.1.16, this work was in a Paris sale of 29 December 1930 of the collection of the Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia. There were at least two sales at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris on that date: one in room 6 was the sale of a "Madame X..." but it did not include any sculpture; the other, in room 10, offered objects from unidentified consignors and included as lot number 86 "Deux groupes en plomb provenant vraisemblablement de deux fontaines qui se trouvaient dans l'ancien théâtre d'eau de Versailles, aujourd'hui disparu." (Julia Armstrong, then at the Getty Provenance Index, identified the sale in room 10, matched the NGA pair to lot 86, and kindly provided a copy of the sale catalogue; see her letter of 20 June 1990 to Alison Luchs, in NGA curatorial files.)

If the "Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia" was a consignor to the sale in room 10, her identity is uncertain. She was not the famed Anastasia whose 1918 death is disputed, but was a cousin, possibly Anastasia Mihailovna (1860-1923), who married Grand-Duke Frederick Francis III of Mecklenberg-Schwerin, or Anastasia Nicolaevna of Montenegro (1867-1935), who married Grand-Duke Nicholas of Russia. Of the two, the latter is the more probable candidate because her husband died in 1929, which may have occasioned the sale of works in their collection, and both she and her husband died in Cape d'Antibes, so the sale would probably have been in France. There is currently no indication that the sale in which the NGA fountains figured as no. 86 was associated with either Anastasia, although it is possible this association is with the other sale on the same date, that of “Madame X.”

[3] Gouvert lent the fountain, along with NGA 1940.1.16, to exhibitions in Paris (1937) and New York (1939).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1937

  • Chefs D'Oeuvre de L'Art Francais, Palais National Des Arts, Paris, 1937, no. 1075.

1939

  • Five Centuries of History Mirrored in Five Centuries of French Art, Pavillon de la France, New York World's Fair, 1939, no.1.

Bibliography

1752

  • Blondel, Jacques-François. Architecture françoise, ou, Recueil des plans, elevations, coupes et profils des e´glises, maisons royales, palais, hôtels & edifices les plus considerables de Paris. 8 vols. Paris, 1752-1756. Reprint as L’architecture français, dite Le très grand Blondel. 8 vols. Paris, 2009: 4:108, 111.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 237, no. A-41.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 254, repro. 219.

1949

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 170, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 172.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 151, repro.

1978

  • King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 35-37, pl. 16.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 639, no. 1001, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 226, repro.

2000

  • National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000:59.

2013

  • Maral, Alexandre. Le Versailles de Louis XIV. Un palais pour la sculpture. Dijon, 2013: 159.

2023

  • De Margerie, Laure. French Sculpture: An American Passion. Ghent, 2023: 258-259, fig. 22.

Wikidata ID

Q63809780

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