Laurent Honoré Marqueste French, 1848-1920

From Margueste's original terracotta sketch in the Musée des Augustins and his plaster model exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1884, it is clear that he intended to incorporate the figure of Pygmalion in the composition.  However the following year he displayed the completed marble of Galatea alone, with only the sculptor's tools and a rose at her feet to suggest his presence.  She is shown in the act of transfiguration, awakening from the confines of the marble, having received the kiss of life from Pygmalion. 

When Carl Jacobsen of the Carlsberg brewery saw the statue in 1901, he ordered a second copy, which had to differ in a few details from the original version, now the property of the French state (it was purchased by the Musée du Luxembourg and is now in Châteaubriant).  The Galatea was also produced in biscuit de Sèvres and a marble statuette, possibly to be identified with the present lot, was exhibited at the French exhibition of 1888 in Copenhagen, organised by Jacobsen.

Marqueste is the sculptor of the famous Perseus Slaying Medusa of 1875, now in Villeurbanne, received to ecstatic acclaim by the critics of the 1876 Salon and winner of the First Class medal.  Jacobsen also obtained permission for a copy in 1902, which like the Galatea is now in the Carlsberg Glyptotek. For more information on the Carlsberg collection, see the current Royal Academy exhibition Masterpieces from the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen 18 September—10th December 2004.

RELATED LITERATURE
Fonsmark no.96, pp.216-17; Musée d'Orsay p.276