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- Candelabrum
- Attributed to François Rémond (1747–1812)
- After Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716–1791), Bronze figure
- France
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- Date: About 1785
- Medium: Gilt bronze and bleu turquin marble
- Height: 97 cm
- Width: 41.5 cm
- Inv: F140
- Location: Boudoir
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- Description
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- Frequently referred to as Cupid and Psyche, the patinated-bronze figures on the candelabra (F140–41) are both after sculptures by Falconet. He exhibited a large-scale plaster version of the winged boy, ‘L’Amour menaçant’ (‘Menacing Cupid’) at the Salon of 1755 and a marble version made for Madame de Pompadour’s Parisian townhouse, the Hôtel d’Evreux, in 1757. The following year he was appointed director of sculpture at the Sèvres manufactory and put a reduced model in soft-paste porcelain into production. Over the next 30 years, the model was produced in a variety of materials and featured in paintings by several artists, including its mischievous depiction in Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’ in the Wallace Collection (P430).
Building on the success of the porcelain model, Falconet designed a pendant for Cupid, which he exhibited at the 1761 Salon, described as ‘A little girl who hides Cupid’s bow’. It went into immediate production at Sèvres and the pair maintained their popularity well into the 1780s. The introduction of candelabra incorporating Falconet’s models dates from the 1780s, when a less austere Neoclassicism reigned in the decorative art of Parisian interiors. The patinated, rather than gilded, finish of the figures is a further allusion to the classical past and references ancient and Renaissance sculpture, while their juxtaposition with the gilded candle branches and flaming torches serves to underscore the fiery passions evoked by Cupid.
The model for these candelabra was most probably supplied by the luxury goods dealer (called 'marchand-mercier') Dominique Daguerre, but it is not known who made them for him. The candle branches appear to be after a model by François Rémond, on which pairs of three- and two-light wall lights at the Palace of Fontainebleau also seem to be based. It is possible that the gilded parts and the patinated figures were handled in two different workshops. The model was evidently quite popular and several 18th-century versions are known; one pair was included in a sale held by Daguerre in London in March 1791.
The candelabra were in the collection of the 4th Marquess of Hertford by 1865, when they were lent to the Musée Rétrospectif. They are recorded at his house at 2 rue Laffitte in 1871, were exhibited by Sir Richard Wallace at Bethnal Green between 1872–5, and were located in the Reynolds Drawing Room – now the Small Drawing Room - at Hertford House in 1890 and 1898.
- Frequently referred to as Cupid and Psyche, the patinated-bronze figures on the candelabra (F140–41) are both after sculptures by Falconet. He exhibited a large-scale plaster version of the winged boy, ‘L’Amour menaçant’ (‘Menacing Cupid’) at the Salon of 1755 and a marble version made for Madame de Pompadour’s Parisian townhouse, the Hôtel d’Evreux, in 1757. The following year he was appointed director of sculpture at the Sèvres manufactory and put a reduced model in soft-paste porcelain into production. Over the next 30 years, the model was produced in a variety of materials and featured in paintings by several artists, including its mischievous depiction in Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’ in the Wallace Collection (P430).