Among the more interesting items known to have adorned the intendant's palace in Québec was a marble bust of the king ("le Buste du Roy en marbre"). This bust, along with one of his mother and a family portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, was among the few things that the intendant Claude-Thomas Dupuy was allowed to keep after the confiscation of his property and his return to France in 1728.
Dupuy was not the first intendant to bring a royal bust to Québec. Jean Bochart de Champigny, intendant from 1686 to 1702, arrived in New France with a bust of Louis XIV. Unlike Dupuy's marble bust, Champigny's was of bronze and destined for outdoor display in the square of Québec's Lower Town. After much ceremony, the bust was installed in November of 1686 and the square renamed Place Royale. Maps and illustrations of Québec do not fail to include the bust, which remained at Place Royale until 1700. Complaints centered on its being in the way on market days, and the bust either returned to France with Champigny or was destroyed when the intendant's palace caught fire in 1713. France offered a new bust to Québec in the 1930s, which can be seen at Place Royale today (although it, too, was removed for being in the way until finally assuming a permanent home in 1948).
Bust of Louis XV, Antoine Coysevox, circa 1719 Although the bust returned to France with Dupuy and was subsequently lost to history, clues exist that can help to visualize its appearance. When Dupuy arrived in New France in September of 1726, the king of France was the sixteen year-old Louis XV (1710-1774), the only surviving great-grandson of Louis XIV (1638-1715). My opinion is that Dupuy's bust was of Louis XV and not his exalted great-grandfather, the "Sun King." The seizure documents at the French colonial archives refer to the bust as being "the king's," not the "former king's" or the "late king's." Furthermore, Dupuy was appointed intendant by Louis XV, and the display of the royal image in the intendant's palace, possibly in the council chamber, would have been in keeping with period practice. At Louisbourg, for example, a portrait of Louis XV could be seen in the chamber reserved for the Sovereign Council- more of a court of appeal for the colony of île Royale- in the king's bastion under the governor's apartments.
With my supposition that Dupuy's royal bust depicted Louis XV, it is likely that it was the work of sculptor Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720). Coysevox's bust of the king, sculpted circa 1719 when he was nine years of age, is the best candidate for a number of reasons, including Dupuy's known relationship with the sculptor. Among the items brought to Canada by the intendant was a two-foot tall white marble medallion. The medallion's gilt border framed an inscription that read "par Ant. Coysevox, pour marque singulière de son amitié" (by Ant. Coyesvox, as a singular mark of his friendship).
I have yet to find a bust of Louis XV any earlier than Coyesvox's 1710s model. As the king only ascended the throne in 1715 at the age of five, and in light of Dupuy's friendship with the sculptor (who died in 1720), I think that this conjecture is plausible. A surviving example of the Coysevox bust can be seen in the collection at Versailles, and the Louvre owns a model in terra cotta.
Base of a later bust of Louis XV featuring a lion With my supposition that Dupuy's royal bust depicted Louis XV, it is likely that it was the work of sculptor Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720). Coysevox's bust of the king, sculpted circa 1719 when he was nine years of age, is the best candidate for a number of reasons, including Dupuy's known relationship with the sculptor. Among the items brought to Canada by the intendant was a two-foot tall white marble medallion. The medallion's gilt border framed an inscription that read "par Ant. Coysevox, pour marque singulière de son amitié" (by Ant. Coyesvox, as a singular mark of his friendship).
I have yet to find a bust of Louis XV any earlier than Coyesvox's 1710s model. As the king only ascended the throne in 1715 at the age of five, and in light of Dupuy's friendship with the sculptor (who died in 1720), I think that this conjecture is plausible. A surviving example of the Coysevox bust can be seen in the collection at Versailles, and the Louvre owns a model in terra cotta.
The seizure papers for Dupuy's estate detail that "le pied du Buste du Roy [est] composé de quatre Lions qui appuyent un pied-douche des Cartouches et des trophées d'armes" ("the base of the King's Bust [is] composed of four Lions pressing against a pedestal of Cartouches and trophies of weapons"). In contrast, the bust of Dupuy's mother, Elisabeth Dupuy, née Aubry (1640-1716), was displayed on a four-foot tall marquetry pedestal.
I haven't found anything matching this description in a modern-day collection, but a pair of circa 1745 busts of Louis XV and his Polish-born queen, Marie Leczinska, each showcase a lion at their base. These busts are made of tin-glazed earthenware (faïence) and are based on models prepared by Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1704-1778).
Dupuy's bust must have been an impressive sight! In addition to being visually striking, such an object would have helped to underscore the power of the intendant, sent to Canada by royal appointment, over judicial and economic affairs in the colony. Although a bourgeois, by all accounts Dupuy used furniture and decorative objects to set an aristocratic tone worthy of Versailles in ways that mirrored his non-noble peers in France, to say nothing of actual noblemen and women. The rise of the Parisian bourgeoisie had its origins at the turn of the eighteenth century, and bourgeois financial ventures, combined with administrative service, made for a society that was beginning to accommodate mobility within the hierarchical structure of the Ancien régime.
Below is not the best quality image, but one that shows the regent for Louis XV, his cousin Philippe d'Orléans, with his son placed in front of two busts. The bust occupying the place of honor over the fireplace is that of Louis XV. A bust of Louis XIV can be seen just to right on a small console. The primacy of Louis XV's bust is clear, and the one depicted in this painting by an unknown French artist is almost surely a model by Coysevox.
I haven't found anything matching this description in a modern-day collection, but a pair of circa 1745 busts of Louis XV and his Polish-born queen, Marie Leczinska, each showcase a lion at their base. These busts are made of tin-glazed earthenware (faïence) and are based on models prepared by Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1704-1778).
Dupuy's bust must have been an impressive sight! In addition to being visually striking, such an object would have helped to underscore the power of the intendant, sent to Canada by royal appointment, over judicial and economic affairs in the colony. Although a bourgeois, by all accounts Dupuy used furniture and decorative objects to set an aristocratic tone worthy of Versailles in ways that mirrored his non-noble peers in France, to say nothing of actual noblemen and women. The rise of the Parisian bourgeoisie had its origins at the turn of the eighteenth century, and bourgeois financial ventures, combined with administrative service, made for a society that was beginning to accommodate mobility within the hierarchical structure of the Ancien régime.
Below is not the best quality image, but one that shows the regent for Louis XV, his cousin Philippe d'Orléans, with his son placed in front of two busts. The bust occupying the place of honor over the fireplace is that of Louis XV. A bust of Louis XIV can be seen just to right on a small console. The primacy of Louis XV's bust is clear, and the one depicted in this painting by an unknown French artist is almost surely a model by Coysevox.