A Fine Patinated Bronze Figural Group of Cupid and Psyche, Entitled ‘L’Amour Vainqueur’ (‘A Love Vanquished’) By Adolphe Itasse (French, 1830 – 1893).
On a revolving rouge de France marble base.
Signed and dated ‘A. Itasse / Scvpt / 1887’, inscribed ‘W. BOUGUEREAU. INV’, stamped with a foundry seal, further inscribed: ‘42047 / 6’, and with brass title plaque to the base.
French, Dated 1887.
The inspiration for this fine bronze group was the painting of the same title by the celebrated artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau painted in 1886 and shown at the the Paris Exposition universelle of 1889. In the same way that Bouguereau often drew inspiration from sculptural compositions for his paintings, sculptors were similarly inspired by his work. The subject shows an infant cupid and psyche and prophesises the abjection of psyche as told in the story of Metamorphoses.
Exhibited:
‘L’Amour vainqueur, d’après Bouguereau’, group in bronze. Salon 1888 (n°4254) and group in marble, Salon 1890 (n° 4029).
Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l’Ecole française au dix-neuvième siècle (T. III. G.-M.), Paris, 1914, p. 189-191.
By appointment only.
