Lot 89: EDWARD AMBROSE (IRISH, 1814-1890) PSYCHE DISCOVERING CUPID

Signed E. Ambrose - April 1853 White marble 66 cm (26 in) Ambrose studied at the Royal Academy Schools in 1845, before travelling to Paris, Rome and Louvain. He returned to London in 1851, in which year he exhibited his marble group, Cupid and Pysche at the Royal Academy (no. 1227). Ambrose seems to have spent his main working years in London and he exhibited a second time at the RA, a statue of Spring in 1864. Ambrose returned to his home town of Cork, where he carved a marble bust of Sir William Lyons, Major of Cork (now in the Crawford Municipal Gallery where there are also preserved versions of his two RA exhibits). Cupid and Psyche was shown at an exhibition in Cork in 1852 and it was this work which probably won him a medal at Liverpool. Ambrose must have found inspiration for his group from Antonia Canova's famous Cupid and Psyche (Paris, Louvre), but he has not slavishly repeated the great neo-classical sculptor's composition. Comparative Literature: W.G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists, Dublin and London 1913, Vol.1 p.6. Allgemeines Kunsterlexikon : Die Bildenden Kunstler aller zeiten und Volker, Munich and Leipzig, 1992, Vol. 3, p.150.