.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This magnificent sculpture, 'Psyche with the lamp’, depicting the deity as she approaches Cupid sleeping, is almost certainly the first model by Luigi Bienaimé (d. 1878), executed in 1835, for Henry John Peachey, 3rd Baron Selsey (d. 1838). Together with the preceding lot, ‘Love tormenting the Soul’ by John Gibson, the two sculptures are part of the Selsey marbles, and are listed in Walks through the Studii of the Sculptors at Rome, published in 1841 (Hawks Le Grice, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 119, 129).
Luigi Bienaimé designed at least three versions of Psyche, the present example 'Psyche with the lamp’, a second holding just a dagger, both illustrated in Sculture di Luigi Bienaimé (Ricci, op. cit., plate XII and X), and a third representing Psyche with drapery hanging over her right arm (this model with its pair, Zephyr, sold Christie’s Milan, 20 November 2002, lot 269, and a pair, possibly the same pair, was with Francesca Antonacci, Apollo, June 2003). By 1841, the sculptor had executed two models of 'Psyche with the lamp’, the present example dated 1835 for 3rd Baron Selsey, and a second example (whereabouts unknown) for Count Dietrechstein, an Austro-Bohemian aristocrat (Hawks Le Grice, op. cit., p. 129). A later model was exhibited in the Court of French and Italian Sculpture at Crystal Palace in 1854 (A. Jameson, op. cit., no. 124).
LUIGI BIENAIMÉ
Bienaimé was born in Carrara in 1795 to a Belgium father and Italian mother. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara and was awarded a scholarship in 1818 to go to Rome where he studied under Bertel Thorvaldsen (d. 1844). His mastery of neoclassicism and symbolism, skillful technique and ability to reproduce faithful copies of Thorvaldsen’s works led to his appointment as Thorvaldsen’s chief assistant. He later had his own studio at piazza Barberini 5, Rome (Hawks Le Grice, op. cit., p. 163). Many works by Bienaimé are untraced including, until the present, this example. In 1841, Walks through the Studii of the Sculptors at Rome lists 16 sculptures by the sculptor, but there were evidently more as he was still working in the latter part of the 19th century. Richard Grosvenor (later 2nd Marquess of Westminster) (d. 1869) acquired 'Telemachus Arming’ for Eaton Hall in 1836 directly from Bienaimé’s studio in Rome; his wife, Elizabeth, detailed their stay in Rome in her diary'One walks in and out of the ateliers of the sculptors as a thing of course, as they are like little barns open to the street (Morris, op. cit., p. 67). 'Telemachus' subsequently sold Sotheby’s London, 3 July 2012, lot 113. In 1839, Tsar Alexander II of Russia purchased a number of sculptures from Bienaimé’s studio, including another 'Telemachus’, 'Diana’, and 'Andromeda’, and the Hermitage Museum has at least five of his works commissioned by German patrons such as the King of Württemburg, Prince Oldenburg and intriguingly Count Dietrichstein, who is possibly the same Count Dietrichstein for whom the second version of 'Psyche with the lamp’ was executed. Bienaimé’s 'Mercury’ is in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome, and a 'Venus’ is in the Museo Civico, Turin.
LORD SELSEY
Little has been published concerning the life of the 3rd Baron Selsey, however his obituary reveals that as a former Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, from 1807, he was well-travelled having served in Java, Bengal and Madras. On 27 June 1816, he succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father, John Peachey, 2nd Baron. The 2nd Baron was also a patron of the arts and collector; in the 1770s, he was in Rome and Venice on the Grand Tour, acquiring a book of views of Rome from William Locke in 1777 (Ingamells, op. cit., p. 750), and his Old Master picture collection included a portrait taken at Rome by Pompeo Battoni (Dallaway, op. cit., vol. I, London, 1815, p. 166). On the 21 October 1817, the 3rd Baron Selsey married Anna-Maria-Louisa Irby (d. 1870), daughter of Frederick, 2nd Baron Boston. The 3rd Baron was a fellow of the Royal Society, with collecting interests ranging from books, drawings and prints but he predominantly admired contemporary sculpture; he patronised Joseph Nollekens (d. 1823), considered the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century, Josephus John Pinnix Kendrick (d. 1832) who executed the funerary monument for 2nd Baron Selsey (1816), and a bust of 3rd Baron Selsey (1825), exhibited at the Royal Academy (now lost), Richard James Wyatt (d. 1850), another portrait bust (1835) (now lost) (Roscoe, op. cit., pp. 689-690, 1428), in addition to John Gibson and Luigi Bienaimé. Lord Selsey owned a number of mansions, comprising West Dean Park (West Sussex), Newsells Park (Hertfordshire), in which to house his collection, however, inventories for the two country seats cited do not contain sculpture, and possibly this was conserved in his London property, possibly Lower Grosvenor Street.
Luigi Bienaimé designed at least three versions of Psyche, the present example 'Psyche with the lamp’, a second holding just a dagger, both illustrated in Sculture di Luigi Bienaimé (Ricci, op. cit., plate XII and X), and a third representing Psyche with drapery hanging over her right arm (this model with its pair, Zephyr, sold Christie’s Milan, 20 November 2002, lot 269, and a pair, possibly the same pair, was with Francesca Antonacci, Apollo, June 2003). By 1841, the sculptor had executed two models of 'Psyche with the lamp’, the present example dated 1835 for 3rd Baron Selsey, and a second example (whereabouts unknown) for Count Dietrechstein, an Austro-Bohemian aristocrat (Hawks Le Grice, op. cit., p. 129). A later model was exhibited in the Court of French and Italian Sculpture at Crystal Palace in 1854 (A. Jameson, op. cit., no. 124).
LUIGI BIENAIMÉ
Bienaimé was born in Carrara in 1795 to a Belgium father and Italian mother. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara and was awarded a scholarship in 1818 to go to Rome where he studied under Bertel Thorvaldsen (d. 1844). His mastery of neoclassicism and symbolism, skillful technique and ability to reproduce faithful copies of Thorvaldsen’s works led to his appointment as Thorvaldsen’s chief assistant. He later had his own studio at piazza Barberini 5, Rome (Hawks Le Grice, op. cit., p. 163). Many works by Bienaimé are untraced including, until the present, this example. In 1841, Walks through the Studii of the Sculptors at Rome lists 16 sculptures by the sculptor, but there were evidently more as he was still working in the latter part of the 19th century. Richard Grosvenor (later 2nd Marquess of Westminster) (d. 1869) acquired 'Telemachus Arming’ for Eaton Hall in 1836 directly from Bienaimé’s studio in Rome; his wife, Elizabeth, detailed their stay in Rome in her diary'One walks in and out of the ateliers of the sculptors as a thing of course, as they are like little barns open to the street (Morris, op. cit., p. 67). 'Telemachus' subsequently sold Sotheby’s London, 3 July 2012, lot 113. In 1839, Tsar Alexander II of Russia purchased a number of sculptures from Bienaimé’s studio, including another 'Telemachus’, 'Diana’, and 'Andromeda’, and the Hermitage Museum has at least five of his works commissioned by German patrons such as the King of Württemburg, Prince Oldenburg and intriguingly Count Dietrichstein, who is possibly the same Count Dietrichstein for whom the second version of 'Psyche with the lamp’ was executed. Bienaimé’s 'Mercury’ is in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome, and a 'Venus’ is in the Museo Civico, Turin.
LORD SELSEY
Little has been published concerning the life of the 3rd Baron Selsey, however his obituary reveals that as a former Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, from 1807, he was well-travelled having served in Java, Bengal and Madras. On 27 June 1816, he succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father, John Peachey, 2nd Baron. The 2nd Baron was also a patron of the arts and collector; in the 1770s, he was in Rome and Venice on the Grand Tour, acquiring a book of views of Rome from William Locke in 1777 (Ingamells, op. cit., p. 750), and his Old Master picture collection included a portrait taken at Rome by Pompeo Battoni (Dallaway, op. cit., vol. I, London, 1815, p. 166). On the 21 October 1817, the 3rd Baron Selsey married Anna-Maria-Louisa Irby (d. 1870), daughter of Frederick, 2nd Baron Boston. The 3rd Baron was a fellow of the Royal Society, with collecting interests ranging from books, drawings and prints but he predominantly admired contemporary sculpture; he patronised Joseph Nollekens (d. 1823), considered the finest British sculptor of the late 18th century, Josephus John Pinnix Kendrick (d. 1832) who executed the funerary monument for 2nd Baron Selsey (1816), and a bust of 3rd Baron Selsey (1825), exhibited at the Royal Academy (now lost), Richard James Wyatt (d. 1850), another portrait bust (1835) (now lost) (Roscoe, op. cit., pp. 689-690, 1428), in addition to John Gibson and Luigi Bienaimé. Lord Selsey owned a number of mansions, comprising West Dean Park (West Sussex), Newsells Park (Hertfordshire), in which to house his collection, however, inventories for the two country seats cited do not contain sculpture, and possibly this was conserved in his London property, possibly Lower Grosvenor Street.