Lot 95: AUGUSTE-EDME SUCHETET

AUGUSTE-EDME SUCHETET FRENCH 1854-1932 ASTARTE signed and dated: A. Suchetet 1883 white marble 92cm., 36¼in.

Suchetet was one of the most successful artists in France during the latter half of the nineteenth century, as is evidenced by the fact that he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1895.

The sfumato-like surfaces of the present marble are ideally suited to a depiction of Astarte, the lunar goddess who was the Phoenician predecessor of the Greek Aphrodite. As Queen of the Evening Star, she was the goddess of passionate love. The striking softness of the modelling and idealisation of the female form was ahead of its time and foreshadowed the stylised forms of Art Nouveau.