Nymph, Marble statue in Tuileries Garden, Paris, France
This marble figure shows a woman with a dog at her feet, standing about 2 meters (6 feet) tall in the garden. It sits in the Grand Carre section and forms part of the collection of classical sculptures arranged throughout the space.
The sculptor was Louis Auguste Lévêque, not Edmond Levesque; the marble Nymph dates from 1872, the year it entered the Tuileries collections. Its arrival belongs to the Second Empire and early Third Republic programme of filling the garden with mythological marbles. Edmond Lévêque, the sculptor's son, is associated with the family workshop.
The statue takes its name from the nymphs, nature spirits of Greek myth, and was carved by Louis Auguste Lévêque, whose son Edmond is also credited in some records. It stands among the Tuileries marbles assembled under the Second Empire and Third Republic, when mythological figures were used to populate the garden's walks.
The Nymph stands in the Grand Carré of the Tuileries Garden, in the 1st arrondissement, on the axis between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. The garden is open daily and free to enter; the gravel alleys and paved terraces around the statue allow walking around it. Nearest metro stops are Tuileries and Concorde.
This work is one of the few surviving pieces by Levesque, whose artistic career was rooted in Paris. His sculptures are rarely found today, making this garden work particularly uncommon.
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