Charles Adrien Prosper d'Epinay

This beautiful marble Venus embodies Prosper d'Épinay's conception of the idealised female form. The figure represents the goddess Venus, who wrings water from her long tresses of hair, thereby fertilising the earth, as described by the French poet Alfred de Musset (1810-1857). As in the archetypal statue of the goddess of love, the Medici Venus, Prosper d'Épinay's deity is supported by a dolphin: an allusion to her aquatic birth. Prosper d'Épinay conceived his Vénus Astarté in 1900. A marble version measuring 70cm., similar to the height of the present marble, was listed at Hotel Drouot on 14 April 1902. The high quality of the present marble's carving, which preserves the suppleness of the flesh, and the intrinsic elegance of this rare model are characteristic of the sculptor's work.

Prosper d'Épinay was born in Mauritius in 1836, the son of the prominent lawyer and politician, Adrien d'Épinay. In 1857 he moved to Paris to study caricature under the sculptor Jean-Pierre Dantan, and, from 1861, he worked in Rome for Luigi Amici. A British subject, he was active in London during the 1860s and 1870s, and, despite eventually settling in Paris, he continued to exhibit at the Royal Academy in London until as late as 1881.

RELATED LITERATURE
F. Thiébault-Sisson, “L’art élégant, Prosper d’Épinay”, in La nouvelle revue, 9, vol. 49, Nov. Dec. 1887, pp. 830-849; P. Roux Foujols, Prosper d'Épinay (1836-1914): Un mauricien à la cour des princes, Ile Maurice, 1996, pp. 38-39 and p. 106