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Lot Essay
The present group relates to Bertrand's bronze group depicting The Rape of Helen, circa 1700-01, which is now at the Château de Fontainebleau. The close similarities include the tiara and the top knot in Venus' hair, the rolled drapery, the sandals and the chariot/boat (see F. Souchal, French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th Centuries: The Reign of Louis XIV, A-F, Oxford, 1977, p.51, no.3).
Other known casts of this model are at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and in the Wallace Collection, London, which mentions an additional cast of this bronze in the Leboeuf de Montgermont sale in Paris, 1919, lot 352 (not illustrated) (see J.G. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Sculpture..., [Supplement], rev. ed. by J. Ingamells, London, 1981, S194, pl.51.).
Other known casts of this model are at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, and in the Wallace Collection, London, which mentions an additional cast of this bronze in the Leboeuf de Montgermont sale in Paris, 1919, lot 352 (not illustrated) (see J.G. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues, Sculpture..., [Supplement], rev. ed. by J. Ingamells, London, 1981, S194, pl.51.).