A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI WHITE MARBLE FIGURAL GROUPS OF VENUS AND CUPID

These beautifully-carved white marble groups of Venus and Cupid were almost certainly executed in the atelier of Etienne-Maurice Falconet circa 1760, with exquisite ormolu and white marble bases added around 1775. The attribution to Falconet is based on three stylistically very similar groups: 'Venus imploreée par l'Amour', a terracotta signed and dated 1754; 'Venus enchainait l'Amour', a marble signed and dated 1760, and finally another virtually identical example signed and dated 1763 (L. Réau, Falconet, Paris, 1922, p. 237). These three pieces allow an attribution to Falconet and dating to the period 1754-63, when he was head of the sculpture workshops at the Sèvres porcelain manufactory; interestingly similar examples also exist in Sèvres white biscuit porcelain. Patronized by Madame de Pompadour, who recommended him for the position at Sèvres, Falconet's documented oeuvre demonstrates his talent for delicate figural groups with complicated postures and tender expressions rendered in carefully-chosen fine white unveined marble, for which he became highly esteemed in the second half of the 18th Century.