Lot 142: Claude Michallon

Claude Michallon
French, 1751-1799
after the antique
the dying gaul
signed and dated: C. Michallon roma 1799
white marble
32 by 62 cm., 12 5/8 by 24 3/8 in.
Also known as the Dying Gladiator, the original marble was first recorded in the inventory of the Ludovisi collection in 1623. Along with a number of other classical marbles it was ceded to the French during the Napoleonic wars but was returned to Rome in 1816. It is now in the Capitoline Museum. It remains one of the most admired classical statues and is referred to in the fourth canto of Byron's Childe Harold (1818).
Born in Lyon, Michallon moved to Paris to work under Pierre Monnot and Bridan. He won the premier prix de sculpture in 1785 with a relief of Brutus condemning his sons to death. He arrived in Rome in December that year and remained in Italy until 1793. Whilst at the French Academy in Rome he executed the tomb for the painter Germain Drouais. Back in Paris Michallon made a series of portrait busts for the Musee des Monument francais including those of Wincklemann, Gluck and Rousseau. One of his last works is the large marble statue of Cato in the Chambre des Deputes, Paris. Michallon died from a fall whilst working on the decoration of the Theatre-Francais in September 1799. The inscription on the present finely executed marble would indicate that Michallon made one last trip to Rome in the year of his death.
Related literature: Lami, vol.4 II pp.134-5