A PAIR OF FRENCH PATINATED BRONZE FIGURAL GROUPS OF DIANA AND ADONIS

These bronze groups of impressive scale are fine, late 19th century reductions of the marble statuary originals by Nicolas Coustou of 1708-10. Depicting Adonis, or Chasseur au Repos, and Nymphe de Diana the originals were supplied with a third group of Nymph à la Colombe: each emblematic of the ‘Return from the Chase’. First supplied to the Château de Marly as pendants to two similar groups by Coysevox, they were transferred to the Tuileries in 1721, and today are displayed at the Louvre. The present bronzes are rare ‘reduction n°1’ editions produced by the Barbedienne foundry.