Description
Stamped & Signed with Foundry Mark
From our Sculptures collection, we are delighted to offer this fantastic French Bronze of Psyche. The bronze with a beautiful golden brown patination cast in bronze featuring Psyche dancing scantly clad upon a stepped plinth base. The bronze by renowned French sculptor Eugene Delaplanche (1836-1891) signed to the base along with the bronze foundry Ferdinand Barbedienne & Achille Collas. The bronze sculpture dating to the second half of the 19th century circa 1870.
Psyche is the Greek goddess of the soul and represented as a woman with butterfly wings. The name Psyche means “soul” and “butterfly” in Greek. According the legend she was born a mortal woman eventually granted immortality, with beauty that rivalled Aphrodite, goddess of love.
Eugene Delaplanche(1836-1891)  was a French sculptor born in Belleville, Paris. He was a pupil of Francisque Joseph Duret and gained the Prix de Rome in 1864 and the medal of honour in 1878. Many of his sculptors are in the Luxembourg National Museum of History and Art, the Glyptothek, Copenhagen and other French Museums with other works located in the Paris Opera House and the Hôtel de Ville, Paris. He is also noted for his decorations in relief on vases of Haviland faience. His best work is naturalistic, but at the same time dignified and simple in line, and shows sound mastery of technique.
Ferdinand Barbedienne (1810-1892) Born in Saint-Pierre-en-Auge, Northwestern France. Barbedienne began life as a wallpaper salesman before going into partnership with Achille Collas in 1838 the founder of a mechanical device capable of replicating miniature models of famous sculptures. From 1838 Barbedienne grew substantially to become one of the most well known French founders and sculptures of the 19th century.
Achille Collas(1795–1859) Born in Paris, France. He was an a celebrated engineer, inventor, writer and engraver who developed a way of mechanically creating engravings and a machine to copy sculptures at a smaller scale, the so-called Réduction Méchanique, which popularised small sculptures and has been credited with being almost entirely responsible for the transformation of the bronze industry.
Measurements | 75cm High x 23cm Wide x 27cm Deep
Condition | Excellent, Wonderful Patination
