Watercolour and gouache over lithographic line, on laid paper. Inscribed: j. B. A. / impie lithographique de c motte rue des marais no. 13. Numbered: 18. Dimensions: 64. 8cm. By 47cm. To be executed in gilt bronze; silvered metal dial; black marble platform. The goddess of the dawn, her finger raised to caution silence, drawing back a coverlet from an infant sleeping on a draped plinth fronted by the clock; the frieze with a studious child between lyres. Aurora’s daily task was to lead the sun god helios (later apollo) into the sky, heralding the day. She is thus a natural subject for a clock and is generally shown pulling a coverlet (the mantle of darkness) away from the dial, exposing the time to daylight. However, here she reveals a sleeping infant, alluding to the posthumous royal infant, the duc de bordeaux. His birth signified a new dawn for the bourbon dynasty, providing the heir presumptive to the throne. He would therefore be shown in the frieze as pursuing his education. Date: between 1815 and 1820..
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