Description 

Impressive marble sculpture by Jean de Bay representing the allegory of the sea by depicting a Cupid braving the current in a small shell-shaped boat. He steers with an oar, sitting on a folded sail next to an anchor. Cupid’s determination to follow his own course and speed, with no desire to stop, may allude to the persistence of love against all odds.

The french sculptor Jean-Baptiste-Joseph de Bay (1802 – 1862)

With the same name as his sculptor father, Jean De Bay was born in Nantes on 31 August 1802. A pupil of his father and Baron Bosio, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts on the 22nd of December 1820. Jean De Bay received a first class medal in 1836 and a second class medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855. He was made a knight of the Legion of Honour on the 25th of May 1851.

He died in Paris, at his home, 75, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, on 7 January 1862, leaving some sculptures unfinished, which were ultimately completed by his brother Auguste De Bay.

Material:

• • White Carrara marble.

Dimensions:

• • Height: 101 cm.
  • Width: 85 cm.
  • Depth: 48 cm.

Period:   

• • 1832