Vénus au dauphin, marble statue in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France
Vénus au Dauphin is a marble statue in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It shows a female figure standing beside a dolphin, carved after an antique model. The group stands low on its base, close to the surrounding path, so the stone can be examined at eye level.
The statue is a copy after an antique, photographed in the Jardin du Luxembourg by Hippolyte Blancard around 1890; the Carnavalet Museum in Paris holds that print (PH77250). The garden's classical marbles were assembled largely in the nineteenth century, and the statue's inception is dated to about 1800. Blancard's negative carries a handwritten title naming a Venus with a dolphin, with an earlier title struck through.
The title "Vénus au dauphin d'après l'antique" marks the group as a copy after an ancient model, a practice common in French garden sculpture. A photograph by Hippolyte Blancard (1843–1924), taken around 1890 and kept at the Musée Carnavalet, records the statue in the Jardin du Luxembourg; its back carries a handwritten title with "Minerve" struck out before "Vénus au Dauphin".
The statue stands in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in the 6th arrondissement, within the garden's sculpture collection. Hippolyte Blancard photographed it around 1890, and the print is now held by the Musée Carnavalet (museum number PH77250). Approach it on foot through the garden; the marble group sits low, so it can be examined closely from the path.
A photograph by Hippolyte Blancard (1843–1924), taken around 1890 and kept at the Musée Carnavalet (PH77250), shows the statue with a handwritten title on the back: "Luxembourg / Minerve au D... / Vénus au Dauphin", the middle words crossed out. The print measures 20.2 by 16.1 cm and came from a gift by Maurice Rousseau.
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