A stunning late 19th century Napoleon III period patinated bronze figure L’Amour au Papillon after Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810). The finely cast bronze depiction of a kneeling Cupid holding the wings of a butterfly represents Cupid capturing Psyche. Presented on an oval bronze ground and a later Rouge Royal marble block base. L’Amour was first presented as a plaster model at the Salon of 1802, to great acclaim. Unfortunately, the artist did not live to see it realised in marble by his friend Pierre Cartellier (French, 1757-1831) in the salon in 1817. Louis XVIII acquired L’Amour for the state and exhibited it at Versailles, where it resided until it was transferred to the Louvre, Paris. French, circa 1870.Based in London, we are dealers in fine decorative antiques from the 18th and 19th centuries. We specialise in this era of enlightenment, neoclassicism and the Grand Tour, with its far reaching influence on style and taste in Britain, Continental Europe and beyond: elegan...