A FRENCH PATINATED BRONZE FIGURE OF MEPHISTOPHELES

Like many of this contemporary Romantic sculptors, Jean-Jacques Feuchère drew inspiration from literary works such as Dante's Inferno, Milton's Paradise Lost and Goethe's Faust. First exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1834, the image of a seated melancholic creature biting his nails with a dejected stare, was singled out among critics as a 'figure that incontestably merits particular attention because of the original character it has been imprinted with, because of the novelty of its composition and the conscientious craftsmanship with which it is rendered.'