Lot 187: AN ENGLISH MARBLE RECLINING FIGURE OF ARIADNE ATTRIBUTED TO LAURENT DELVAUX (SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY)

the nude figure with classically upswept hair, partially draped at the waist and resting on her head upon a tasseled pillow over another draped cushion and a larger chaise cushion, small chips and repair to left ankle Related Literature Alain Jacobs, Laurent Delvaux. Gand, 1696 - Nivelles, 1778, Paris, 1999, nos. S14-S16 Charles Avery, "Laurent Delvaux's Sculpture in England", in Studies in European Sculpture, London 1981, pp. 237-252, no. 11 R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors. 1660-1851, Cambridge, 1954, p. 126 Laurent Delvaux (1696-1778) was born in the Low Countries and came to London in 1717. He joined Peter Scheemakers in creating a number of important works including the Apollo and Venus at Stowe and monuments including of Sir Thomas Grantham at Bicester, Oxon and Dr. H. Chamberlen in Westminster Abbey. The partners traveled to Rome together where Delvaux only stayed for two years. He left for Brussels where he was appointed sculptor to the Archduchess Marie Elizabeth of Austria. He visited England again only briefly in 1733 and then returned to the Continent. Among his major works may be included the statue of George I for Rolls Chapel in London and a statue of Hercules for Lord Castlemaine. There are several statues at Woburn Abbey and other marbles originally in notable private English collections. During the period of his partnership with Scheemakers, Delvaux produced several recumbent statues in marble of classical or mythological female figures. These figures were meant to adorn mantelpieces or sideboards for the English gentry, each with slight variations in pose or attributes. The type originates from the classical figure of sleeping Ariadne in the Vatican which was adopted by Giambologna in his bronze statuettes of a Sleeping Nymph. Compare a figure of Ariadne signed Delvaux in the Mellon Center, Yale University (Jacobs, no. S16, op.cit.) with nearly identical treatment of the torso, position of the body and carving of the head. The cushions