French, Paris, circa 1690

on a mottled Siena marble base

With Daniel Katz, London, 1983, from whom acquired by the present owner

Overall the condition of the bronze is very good. There is some minor wear and dirt to the surface consistent with age and handling. The bronze was cast in several pieces; there are joints visible at Nessus' proper right shoulder, right front leg and left hind leg and at both Deianeira's shoulders. There are a few minor chips to the marble base.
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This original and lively variation upon the popular subject of Nessus and Deianeira shows the precise moment of the centaur's defeat: falling onto his knees, he attempts - in vain - to pull out the arrow, which Hercules has shot into his heart, while Deianeira appears to risk slipping from his back.

As Nicholas Penny pointed out, an entry in André Le Nôtre's post mortem inventory (the great garden architect died on 15 September 1700) mentions a bronze, which may refer to a cast of this group: "une autre figure de bronze représentant le Santor [Centaur] et Déjanire, sur son pied de bois" (valued at 60 livres). Another cast of it was sent (together with a Rape of Europa) to the Elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, by Baron Raymond Le Plat in 1699.  Both bronzes remain the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden. Another pair was purchased by Count Carl Gustav Tessin in Paris before 1740 and is now preserved in Drottingham Castle, Sweden. A lone Nessus and Deianeira from Hertford House is now in the Wallace collection.

As Robert Wenley (op. cit.) maintains, the two groups, however, appear to be modelled by different hands and the Nessus group, with its classical references, was not conceived as a pair for Europa. It was intended to be viewed from all sides. It seems likely that the Europa was paired with the Deianeira as a commercial afterthought, perhaps by the bronze caster. Aesthetically, both models are stronger on their own.

RELATED LITERATURE
W. Holzhausen, "Die Bronzen Augustus des Starken in Dresden," Jahrbuch der koniglich preussischen Kunstsammlungen, Berlin, LX, Heft 2, 1939, p. 182; H. Weihrauch, Europaische Bronzestatuetten. 15.-18. Jahrhundert, Braunschweig, 1967, p. 410, fig. 494; The French Bronze 1500-1800, Knoedler and Co., New York, 6-27 Nov., 1968, no. 28; N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, 1540-the Present Day, 3 vols. Oxford, 1992, II, pp. 103-4, nos. 331-332. R. Wenley, French Bronzes in the Wallace Collection, London, 2002, pp. 62-3