38. Groupe en bronze représentant le Chasseur au repos, Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (1699-1774), vers 1750, d'après un modèle de Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) A bronze group depicting the resting Hunter, Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (1699-1774), French, Paris, circa 1750 after a model by Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733). Signed Duplessis fec; dark brown patina with green highlights, resting on a square wooden later socle, 37cm high, 45cm total high, (14 1/2in high, 17 1/2in total high) Provenance: By repute collection Charles François de Vintimille, Comte du Luc, Provence, his sale, C.F. Julliot et F.C. Joullain, Paris, 22-23 December 1777, lot 18; Defining Taste, Sotheby's London, 12 Novembre 2013, lot 162; Private Parisian collection The bronze presented, equally called Adonis se reposant de la chasse is a reduction of the famous marble sculpted by Nicolas Coustou in 1710, once conserved in the gardens of Marly (inv. no MR 1796). Several bronze versions of Adonis seated were commissioned throughout the 18th century to decorate the Parisian hôtels particuliers. Our bronze is the work of Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis, best known for his Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain creations. In 1751, Duplessis is commissioned by Louis XV to design the drawings of the first large scale service de table. In 1758, he is granted the status of Orfèvre du Roi. See the following for comparable examples: The French Bronze, 1500-1800, exh. cat. Galerie Knoedler & Co., New York, 1968, no.45; F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries. The reign of Louis XIV (1977), pp. 168-169, no.52; G. Bresc-Bauthier, Sculptures des jardins du Louvre (1986), p. 115; S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au XVIIIe siècle, III, 1910