Clémence Sophie Noyel de Bereins, née Daudignac, known as Clémence Sophie de Sermézy (1767-1850) Portrait of Mademoiselle Gabrielle Horacie Vitet Terracotta bust 1799 Signed on the reverse "Fait par Cl.(emence)/ Daudignac/ Ve N. S (for Veuve Noyel de Sermézy)/ illegible May ? 1799". Total height 46 cm on a plaster pedestal with an imitation LJ marble patina Patina wear, accidents and restorations Related work : -Clémence Sophie de Sermézy, Buste de mademoiselle Vitet, plaster, 1799, H: 46 cm, signed on reverse "Fait par Clémence Daudignac, veuve Noyel, au mois de juin 1799", Louisville (USA),Speed Art Museum, n°inv.2018.4. Related literature: -Paul Vitry, "Madame de Sermézy, pupil of Chinard", in Bulletin des Musées de France, October 1935, pp.133-134; -Anne Tapissier, Madame de Sermézy. Élève de Chinard, Lyon, Audin, 1936, ill. 26 and 27 and p.44-45 ; -Phillipe Durey, "Clémence Sophie de Sermézy", in Cat. Exp. Peintres et sculpteurs lyonnais de la Révolution à l'Empire held at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Lyon from 22 November 1989 to 11 February 1990, Delta, 1989, pp.137-144 ; -Claire Barbillon (dir), Sculptures du XVIIe au XXe siècle, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Somogy éditions d'art, 2017, p.141 and pp.148-159. This charming terracotta bust could be an early version of the portrait of Mademoiselle Gabrielle Horacie Vitet . It has the same facial features and tumultuous curls of hair stuck forward as the bust in the Speed Art Museum, which is similarly signed on the reverse "Clémence Daudignac, veuve Noyel", both dated 1799. This is an early portrait by one of the first female sculptors of the 19th century, Clémence-Sophie de Sermézy, née Daudignac. A member of Lyon's high society, she appears to have begun sculpting around 1792, after the death of her husband in July 1791. Between 1794/95 and 1799, she benefited from lessons from the famous sculptor Joseph Chinard, who worked in the same elitist sphere in Lyon. Sermézy's early works were mainly bust portraits - in plaster or terracotta - of personalities from her family circle, such as her daughter Marguerite de Sermézy and members of the Lyon intelligentsia, the painters Fleury Richard and Pierre Révoil. In the artistic tradition of classical portraits from the late 18th century, the bust bears the visible imprint of its master's lessons, particularly in the sophisticated effects of the hair. However, the depiction of the slightly wide-set eyes still bears witness to a few technical clumsinesses that are completely erased in the second version of the young girl with her eyes so kindly lowered and her bust clad in a charming fashionable neckline. Between the two terracotta busts, Chinard's lesson has been fully assimilated (unless the sculptor really did touch up the second version, as was rumoured at the time). The second version of the bust of Mademoiselle Vitet was directly inspired by the magnificent portrait of Juliette Récamier in patinated plaster presented by Chinard at the Salon of 1798, which he gave to Clémence de Sermézy (Joseph Chinard, Juliette Récamier, patinated plaster, H.72 cm, Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, n°inv. A 2961).