François Linke, end of the 19th century

FRANÇOIS LINKE (France, 1855-1946)
After CLAUDE-MICHEL CLODION (1738-1814).
Table clock.
"La source".
Carrara marble.
Green marble pedestal, gilded bronze.
Signed "Imbert a Paris" (After Jean-Gabriel Imbert).
Measurements: 34 x 54 x 29 cm; 10 x 59 x 10,5 cm (pedestal).

Table clock whose model was made by François Linke based, in a direct way, on the work "La Source" by Clodion. The piece, and its history, is referenced on pages 352 and 353 of "François Linke: The Belle Epoque of French Furniture", by Christopher Payne.

Linke was a celebrated cabinetmaker and decorator of Austro-Hungarian origin, based in Paris. This sculptural table clock features a Carrara marble sculpture that reproduces with remarkable fidelity the famous figure of the reclining nymph by Clodion, a French rococo sculptor admired for his mythological compositions of voluptuous grace. The sculpture retains the dynamism and sensuality characteristic of the artist, adapted here to a functional and decorative context. In this version, the place of the traditional fallen pitcher (from which the water flows in the original version of "Le source") has been replaced by the clock face, with Arabic numerals. It is signed by Imbert, although it is probably a manufacture made by a later workshop that retakes its machinery. The figure of the nymph appears reclining on a marble bed, whose draped sheets are sculpted with virtuosity, evoking an intimate scene of mythological stillness. This bed rests on a green marble plinth, framed by a gilded bronze perimeter molding, chiseled with a vegetal fretwork.

The combination of noble materials, together with the sculptural quality and the refinement of the assembly, make this work an aesthetic manifesto of the decorative eclecticism of the late 19th century.

Although better known for his furniture than for his decorative objects, this clock embodies the synthesis between ornamental tradition and modern sensibility that characterized François Linke's production.

Linke achieved international recognition after his consecration at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition, where his furniture-opulent, innovative, and technically impeccable-marked a turning point in Belle Époque cabinetmaking. His work represents a sophisticated fusion between the Rococo legacy and the then emerging Art Nouveau.