Important European Terracotta & Bronze Sculpture from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections

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Lot 524
  • 524

After Antoine-Denis Chaudet

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
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Description

  • Antoine-Denis Chaudet
  • Cupid Teasing a Butterfly with a Rose
  • bronze
  • height 19 3/8 in.; 49.1 cm
signed on the flower: Chaudet.

Provenance

John Lewis, London; Heim Gallery, London

Catalogue Note

RELATED LITERATURE

London 1972, cat. no. 219

The plaster for Cupid or L'Amour was exhibited at the Salon of 1802, it was well received, but unfortunately, Chaudet was unable to complete the marble version. After his death in 1810, however, Pierre Cartellier, a friend of long standing, completed the marble at the request of Chaudet's widow. Exhibited at the Salon of 1817 and bought by the State for 12,000 francs, L'Amour was first exhibited at Versailles at the Grand Trianon and was moved to the Louvre in about 1850. Although the original plaster is now lost, the Soyer foundry first cast a bronze version in 1824 and exhibited the bronze in that year. 

The symbolism of the action of the figure of Love offering a rose to a butterfly is that of love beguiling the soul in search of pleasure.