A GEORGIAN PLEASURE GROUND 'He had been much more successful with his statuary than with his plants during the ensuing forty years and attractive groups of eighteenth and nineteenth-century figures peered sightlessly from every corner, small fat Italian boys grinned at the stroller from the end of the avenue, and Bacchus and Pan trod the woodland paths together. The finest acquisition was a large Italian baroque group on a plinth of Apollo flaying Marcyas,large, grand and worthy of any Renaissance garden. This he placed directly below the big cedar and facing the avenue, so that a promenade on the raised walk could admire it from a good height. It was subsequently discovered that the group had come from Villa Martenengo in Northern Italy and had been mentioned by Lady Mary Wortley in the eighteenth century. Some other statues of bathers came from the sale of the Duke of Leeds collection at Hornby Castle and another pretty Apollo in marble, dating from about 1830 was acquired from Kimbolton. This he placed in a little grotto close to his verandah and concealing a musical box behind it, enjoyed the illusion of Arcadian music coming from its stone lyre!' S. Houfe, The Professor

A FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF BATHING VENUS

CAST BY BARBEDIENNE AFTER A MODEL BY CHRISTOPHE-GABRIEL ALLEGRAIN, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Details

A FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF BATHING VENUS
CAST BY BARBEDIENNE AFTER A MODEL BY CHRISTOPHE-GABRIEL ALLEGRAIN, LATE 19TH CENTURY
On a square plinth, inscribed to the reverse 'G.C. ALLEGRAIN FECIT 1767' and 'F BARBEDIENNE FONDEUR N.75', with Reduction Mecanique roundel
33 1/3 in. (85 cm.) high

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Lot Essay

Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (1710-1795) was a French sculptor, renowned for having infused the rigorous Neoclassical style with a Rococo charm and gentleness. His single most famous work, La Baigneuse, was commissioned for the Royal Residences through the Bâtiment du Roi. It was completed in 1766 and exhibited at the Salon of 1767 where it received an extraordinary reception. It is currently in the Louvre, Paris.

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