Live Auction 7470Christie's Interiors - Style & Spirit Including Collection of a Nobleman Part I
A FRENCH WHITE MARBLE BUST OF MARGUERITE
Lot 303

A FRENCH WHITE MARBLE BUST OF MARGUERITE

BY NICHOLAS LECORNEY, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Closed20 November 2012

Price Realised

GBP 3,750

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A FRENCH WHITE MARBLE BUST OF MARGUERITE
BY NICHOLAS LECORNEY, LATE 19TH CENTURY
Her long her in a plait, her bodice decorated with flowers, inscribed 'Lecorney', on a waisted socle
26½ in. (67½ cm.)

Christie's, London, 31 October 1996, lot 340.

Specialist note

The present bust by Lecorney depicts Marguerite, the innocent and beautiful heroine of Gounod's opera Faust (1859) and a popular subject for portrayal in late 19th Century sculpture. The aged Faust falls in love with the young maiden and enters into a devillish pact with Mephistopheles, whereby he trades his soul for renewed youth and the symbollic 'flower' of Marguerite.