19th & 20th Century European Sculpture

/

Lot 64
  • 64

Prosper d'Epinay Mauritian, 1836-1914

bidding is closed

Description

  • Prosper d'Epinay
  • Zuleika, la Fiancée d'Abydos
  • signed & dated: P. d'Epinay Roma 1875 and entitled ZULEIKA
  • white marble

Catalogue Note

Such was Zuleika - such around her shone
The nameless charms unmark'd by her alone;
The light of love, the purity of grace,
The mind, the Music breathing from her face,
The heart whose softness harmonised the whole -
And, oh! that eye was in itself a soul!

Byron, The Bride of Abydos, Canto I, Verse VI

Zuleika, the beautiful Persian, appears in The Bride of Abydos - a poem by Lord Byron written in 1813. Promised to Abdyos, Zuleika instead falls in love with Selim. Her father kills Selim for dishonouring his family and Zuleika dies of a broken heart.

Roux-Foujols records only one version of Zuleika, la Fiancée d'Abydos which was exhibited at the Salon in 1867, the whereabouts of which is unknown.

RELATED LITERATURE
Roux-Foujols, pp.106-7