“The sorrow of Orpheus”, VERLET Raoul

Large bronze with brown sheen, “The sorrow of Orpheus” depicting the young poet in his desperation of losing his love at the gates of Hell. At his feet, the three headed dog, guardian of underworld, Cerberus. Very dramatic scene expressing the intensity of the moment. Signed on the terrace. Marked for the founder Ferdinand Barbedienne in Paris. Beautiful details, chasing and patina.

Dim: H 83 cm

French School, circa 1890.

Liter: Orpheus, with his lyre, was a renowned poet of Greek mythology. This bronze refers to the dramatic story when Orpheus, trying to rescue his wife Eurydice from death, decides to enter the kingdom of the dead. By his bewitching song, he managed to convince the infernal deities to accept to let them go together, under the sole condition that Orpheus does not turn to look at her before reaching the light of day. But on the way back and giving in on the demand of Eurydice, begging him to look at her, the boy turns around and loses her definitively. Desperate, he goes alone on Earth.

Raoul Verlet began his apprenticeship in sculpture in Bordeaux between 1884 and 1886, to continue later at the School of Fine Arts in Paris where he became a pupil of Jules Cavelier and Louis-Ernest Barrias. He exhibited at the Salon from 1880 to 1914, where he introduce the public to the the plaster model of Orpheus. The Museum of Angouleme owns a bronze edition.