A PAIR OF FRENCH BRONZE FIGURES OF THE MENACING CUPID AND A NYMPH HIDING CUPID'S BOW

Falconet's celebrated model of the 'Menacing Cupid' was first exhibited in plaster in 1755 and the marble in 1757. The latter was commissioned for Madame de Pompadour and was later placed in her Parisian hôtel (G. Levitine, The Scupture of Falconet, Greenwich, 1972, figs. 55-56). The nymph hiding Cupid's bow was originally exhibited in 1761 and the two were reproduced as pendant figures in Sèvres biscuit as well as in bronze.