artcurial

On March 20, Artcurial's Old Masters & 19th Century Department will hold its prestigious spring sale featuring an exceptional marble by Italian painter and sculptor Antonio Canova (1757 - 1822). This sculpture, titled Head of Calliope or Imagined Portrait of Marie-Louise of Habsburg, Empress of the French as Calliope, is inspired by the Muse of epic poetry Calliope and is part of Canova's "Ideal Heads" series. This masterpiece, estimated at between 3 and 4 million euros, was part of the collection of the Gourgaud family. The first of them, General Gaspard Gourgaud (1783 - 1852), was an artillery officer during the First Empire and Napoleon Bonaparte's memorial lord on St. Helena.