Apollon et l'Amour (Le Jour)

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's early works, known collectively as his oeuvres de jeunesse, are among a limited number currently housed in public and private collections and remained for some time unidentified in his own records and those of his daughter. Monsieurs Poletti and Richarme classify a selection of these rarely-seen works under the heading objets décoratifs and repeatedly refer to their intended ornamental use as travaux pour le commerce (works for the trade). Examples of the artist's earliest edited works are believed to be conceived circa 1850 and later edited by established bronziers, such as Graux-Marly, for use as decorative objects or garnitures de cheminées (M. Poletti & A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Sculpteur, catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre édité, 2003, p. 31). Together with a pendant group of Venus et l'amour emblematic of Night, the present lot (Day) was conceived en suite for a large garniture centered by an impressive group of Aurora dramatically ushering in the dawn from night's darkness.