after:

PAJOU, Augustin

Paris 1730 - Paris 1809

L'Amour fidèle, l'un d'une paire

Faithful Love, one of a pair

1787

marble

statuette

Dimensions (HxWxD): without base: 10 ³⁄₁₆ x 4 ¹⁄₄ x 3 ⁷⁄₈ in.

signed behind stump with roses: Pajou f [fecit] 1787

Acc. No.: 1942.54.2

Credit Line: Gift of Grace Rainey Rogers in memory of her father, William J. Rainey

Photo credit: The Cleveland Museum of Art

© Artist : public domain

© Artist : public domain

Cleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Museum of Art

www.clevelandart.org

Provenance

• Paris, Baron Maurice de Rothschild
• 1917, New York, Arnold Seligmann, Rey & Co., Inc.
• New York, Grace Rainey Rogers (1867-1943)
• 1942, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art

Bibliography

• Museum's website (accessed May 22, 2017)
• 1985 Ditner
  David Charles Ditner, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century European Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art, PhD Dissertation, Cleveland, OH, Case Western Reserve University, 1985, p. 236
• 1997 Draper and Scherf
  James D. Draper and Guilhem Scherf, Augustin Pajou, Royal Sculptor, 1730-1809, exhibition catalogue, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997, no. 220 (mentioned)

Related works

• See also its pendant, Fickle Love, 1942.54.1.

Comment

• Museum's website (accessed May 22, 2017):
  These statuettes represent the opposing spectrums of love -- fickle and faithful -- both portrayed by Cupid. Fickle Love absent-mindedly plays with a butterfly, a symbol of the fleeting moment. Conversely, Faithful Love is accompanied by a dog, the ultimate loyal companion. These works were originally believed to be by the hand of Augustin Pajou, because the works are signed and he made nearly identical sculptures. However, owing to the slightly clumsy execution and the awkward scale of the signatures, the museum now believes the statuettes to have been created by another artist after Pajou's design.
  David Silvernail (April 2012)

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