Lot 93: Denys-Pierre Puech, French (1854-1942) European Furniture, Sculpture & Works of Art

a large white marble group entitled "La Sirène", dated 1906 signed to the side D.Puech/ Paris-1906 and with title to the front LA SIRENE, 66cm wide, 55cm deep, 97.5cm high (25.5in wide, 21.5in deep, 38in high).

97.5cm high

It was during his stay at the Villa Medici that Puech conceived the idea for "La Sirène". It had been his intention to produce a number of grand academic pieces, however Puech fell passionately in love with the celebrated opera singer Emma Calvé who was then performing in Rome. As Puech wrote 'it is to her that I owe the inspiration for the group.' The group shows the abduction of an ephebus, or young man, by a chimeric siren with wings and the tail of a fish. Puech noted the rarity of the scene - a woman abducting a man, rather than the more common depiction of a man carrying away a female victim. The theme expressed Puech's situation perfectly: "The state of being in love was the inspiration for The Siren. I had the presentiment that, with the Siren's rape of the Ephebus, I could express the force of Passion, which reached towards the Unknown, which, itself, might be Fidelity or the Fall..." In Greek mythology the sirens seduced sailors with their singing only to lead them to their death in the sea. The Siren won a First Class medal at the Salon and the marble was bought by the state for 12,000 francs. Another version is in the Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.