Antonio Frilli Italian, 19th/20th Century after Duchoiselle

The present marble version of Duchoiselle's best known composition was carved by the Florentine studio of Antonio Frilli. Active from the second half of the 19th century the Frilli gallery produced a whole variety of work from original designs by Antonio to copies after the Antique or after the great sculptors of the Renaissance, as well as, what may be described as modern classics. These were often versions of the work of Canova, Thorvaldsen and other key Neo-classical sculptors, but they also produced more commercial models of French and, even English, sculpture. Duchoiselle is a mysterious artist. He is documented as having executed ceiling reliefs for both the Louvre and Garnier's Opéra in 1882, but nothing else is known of his life and work. Bronze casts of this model (circa 61cm high) appear occasionally on the market and a larger marble example (63.5cm high) sold for $25,000 in Sotheby's New York 1 November 1995