Denys-Pierre Puech French, 1854-1942

Denys Puech 1854-1942, ex. cat., Musée des Beaux Arts Denys Puech, Rodez, 1993, pp. 94-5

Overall in good original condition with the usual wear to the patina in places especially to high reliefs of the composition and such consistent with handling, touching, and cleaning. Light scratches consistent with age.
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It was during his stay at the Villa Medici that Puech conceived the idea for The Siren. It had been his intention to produce a number of grand academic pieces, however Puech fell passionately in love with the celebrated opera singer Emma Calvé, who was then performing in Rome. As Peuch wrote 'it is to her that I owe the inspiration for the group.' The group shows the abduction of an Ephebus, or young man, by a chimeric siren with wings and the tail of a fish. Puech noted the rarity of the scene-a woman abducting a man, rather than the more common depiction of a man carrying away a female victim. The theme expressed Puech's situation perfectly: "The state of being in love was the inspiration for The Siren. I had the presentiment that, with the Siren's rape of the Ephebus, I could express the force of passion, which reached towards the unknown, which, itself, might be fidelity or the fall..." In Greek mythology the sirens seduced sailors with their singing only to lead them to their death in the sea.

The sculpture arrived in Paris to be shown to acclaim at the École des Beaux Arts in 1889 and at the Salon in 1890. Some found the slightly subversive subject rather shocking and echoed the sentiments of Contessa Molotesta who viewed the sculpture in the artist's Roman studio and told Peuch "Your Siren has evil intentions." The Siren won a First Class medal at the Salon and the marble was bought by the French state for 12,000 francs. Another version is in the Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.