Lot 60: RAOUL CHARLES VERLET

RAOUL CHARLES VERLET FRENCH 1857 - 1923 LA DOULEUR D'ORPHÉE (ORPHEUS' SORROW) signed: Raoul Verlet , inscribed: F. BARBEDIENNE, Fondeur , with the RÉDUCTION MÉCANIQUE A.COLLAS BRÉVÉTÉ pastille, numbered: 3 35640 in black ink, inscribed 220 and stamped U three times on the underside bronze, mid-brown patina 83cm., 32 5/8 in.

In this group Verlet depicts Orpheus emerging from the gates of hell in a state of acute anguish, having broken his promise to Hades not to look round at Eurydice, and thus loosing his chance to bring her back from the Underworld. The plaster model for La douleur d'Orphée was first exhibited at the Salon of 1887, and a bronze version was erected in the Place Malesherbes, but destroyed in 1942. Verlet began exhibiting at the Salon at 1880 and won a second class medal in 1887. At the Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900 he won the gold medal and the medal of honour with the Grand Prix. La Douleur d'Orphée was cast by Barbedienne in four sizes.