ATTRIBUTED TO ANTONIO ROSSETTI, ROME, MID-19TH CENTURY

The present group can be attributed to Antonio Rossetti on the basis of comparisons to several identical works signed by the sculptor including one sold Christie’s, London, 19 October 1995, lot 264 (£67,500) and another sold Bonhams, San Francisco, 28 October 2014, lot 5104 W ($87,500). Esmeralda, the gypsy-girl heroine from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, is here depicted holding her goat, atop a pedestal set with four relief panels depicting scenes from her life. Additional versions of this group can be found in The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia and in the collection of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Born in Milan in 1819, Rossetti studied under sculptor Francesco Somaini and later worked in Rome. His much-admired œuvre includes sculptures of nudes, portraits, and genre scenes, such as the present lot.