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Title:
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Cupid and Greyhound
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Artist: |
Baron Carlo Marochetti
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The marble version of this group was exhibited in the Royal Academy in London in
1854. It shows the sculptor treating a theme similar to that found in his very
first recorded work, the Young Girl Playing with a Dog of 1827. A bronze
version of the Cupid and Greyhound was exhibited at The Liverpool Society of Fine Arts (no.787) in 1859, and, either this, or another bronze cast, was included in the posthumous sale
of Marochetti's studio contents (Christie, Manson and Woods, 7 May 1868, lot 88), where
it bears the alternative title of "The Lesson". Although the work may be described as a genre
subject, the treatment of it is timeless, and interestingly, when a bronze
version was exhibited in the Horticultural Society Gardens in South Kensington,
the Art Journal (1 October 1864,
p.298) said that it "resembles in everything, as of course is intended, a
Roman bronze". Of the marble, when exhibited at the RA, the Morning
Chronicle (20 June 1854) commented only that it was "clever and
good". The marble was shown again in the Paris International Exhibition of
1855. On the 18 May of that year it was acquired by the French government, and
in 1856 was placed in the Tuileries. In all probability it was destroyed when
the palace was burned down during the Paris Commune in 1871.The file in the
Archives Nationales F21-735, dedicated to Marochetti's project for an
equestrian statue of Napoleon for the Esplanade of the Invalides, on which he
had been working when the 1848 Revolution broke out, and which was subsequently
countermanded, contains some interesting documentation on the purchase of the Cupid
and Greyhound. From this it would appear that the work was acquired
in order to compensate Marochetti for what he considered the French state's
inadequate recognition of the work he had put in on the equestrian statue. In a
personal letter to the Minister of the Interior (29 March 1855), Marochetti
conveyed his thanks, adding, "the government of King Louis Philippe would
certainly have been owing to me compensation
for the expense and trouble I was put to with the equestrian statue of
the Emperor". The 8000 francs which he was paid for the Cupid and
Greyhound by the Ministry of the Interior, generously exceeded the 5000
francs which he estimated he was still owed.
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Material(s): |
Marble
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Medium: |
Unassigned |
Finish: |
- |
Technique: |
- |
Genre: |
Genre Group
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Colours: |
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Year: |
1854 |
Height: |
0 metres |
Width: |
0 metres |
Depth: |
0 metres |
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Key: |
6137 |
Acc. No.: |
6137 |
Col. No.: |
6137 |
Number of views: |
2399 |
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