Marly Horse In Bronze After Coustou, 19th Century Sculpture

Patinated bronze sculpture representing one of the two horses of Marly after Coustou. Bronze with brown patina with golden nuances. Coustou signature on the base. Proof from the late 19th century. Delivery 50 euros in France, 100 euros in the EU and 200 euros rest of the world. The Horses of Marly were commissioned in 1739 by Louis XV from the sculptor Guillaume Coustou, to decorate the "watering trough of Marly" located at the entrance to the park of the Château de Marly, in order to replace two sculpted groups. These, Mercury on Horseback on Pegasus and Fame on Horseback on Pegasus by Antoine Coysevox, had in fact been moved in 1719 to the Tuileries gardens. The models were chosen by the king in 1743, and were installed in Marly in 1745, after only two years of work. In 1794, they were transferred to Place de la Concorde. They were restored in 1840 by Louis-Denis Caillouette (1790-1868). In 1984, in particular because the parade of tanks on July 14 had weakened them, as well as because of the pollution affecting the marble, they were replaced by reconstituted marble copies made by Michel Bourbon in the workshop of a Bouygues subsidiary. The latter took the opportunity to request the right to make an additional copy, which was placed at the Bouygues Construction headquarters. The originals are kept at the Louvre Museum, in a former courtyard of the Richelieu wing transformed into a patio, called the Marly courtyard.