A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV BRONZE GROUPS attributed to Corneille van Clève, one depicting Psyche discovering Cupid, the other depicting Venus disarming Cupid, each on naturalistically-cast shaped bases with foliate trails and roots

Details

A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV BRONZE GROUPS attributed to Corneille van Clève, one depicting Psyche discovering Cupid, the other depicting Venus disarming Cupid, each on naturalistically-cast shaped bases with foliate trails and roots
The former 10¼in. (26cm.) wide; 18¾in. (48cm.) high
The latter 11¾in. (30cm.) wide; 18¾in. (48cm.) high (2)

Provenance

Probably baron Gustave de Rothschild (1829-1911), 23 Avenue Marigny, Paris
Thence by descent to his granddaughter Sybil, Marchioness of Cholmondeley

Literature

H. Avray Tipping, English Homes, Period V-Vol. I, Early Georgian, 1714-60, London, 1921, p. 78, fig. 99 & 104 (illustrated in situ in the Stone Hall)
J.G. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Sculpture, London, 1931 (supplement 1981) p.70, no. 186, & supplement
New York, M. Knoedler et al, 'The French Bronze 1500 to 1800', Exhibition Catalogue, 6-27 November 1968, nos. 43A & B
D. Cooper ed., Great Family Collections, London, 1965, p. 225, (illustrated in situ)
F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries The Reign of Louis XIV, Oxford, 1987, III, pp. 393-7, nos. 65-6, and London, 1993, IV, p. 196, no. 65

Exhibited

Lot Essay

CORNEILLE VAN CLEVE (1645-1732)

The attribution of the present pair of bronzes is based on the compelling stylistic analogies between them and Van Clève's group representing Diana and Endymion in the Grünes Gewölbe at Dresden, an example of which was exhibited at the salon of 1704 (H. R. Weihrauch, Europäische Bronzestatuetten - 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Braunschweig, 1967, pp. 414-415, fig. 498). A number of examples of the bronzes appeared at auction in Paris during the second half of the 18th Century, and a pair is known to have been acquired for Dresden as early as 1723, while another was in the Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum at Brunswick from its foundation in 1754 (Souchal, 1987, op. cit.). The group of Venus disarming Cupid was inspired by a marble begun by Jacques Sanrazi (1590-1660) and completed by Van Clève by 1715. That group is now lost, but its appearance seems to be recorded in a copy at Waddesdon (for which, see T. Hodgkinson, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Sculpture, London, 1970, no. 76, pp. 212-5)

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