AFTER ANTONIO CANOVA | CUPID AND PSYCHE

Mary Caroline Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland (1848-1912), Carbisdale Castle, Scottish Highlands (by 1906)

Colonel Theodore Salvesen (1863-1942), Carbisdale Castle, Scottish Highlands (by 1933)

Captain Harold Keith Salvesen (1897-1970), Carbisdale Castle, Scottish Highlands (by descent from the above, 1942)

Scottish Youth Hostels Association (gifted in 1945)

Sale: Sotheby's, London, May 20, 2015, lot 14, illustrated

Acquired at the above sale

This sculpture comes from the collection of Carbisdale Castle, a magnificent Scottish Baronial residence that was built for Mary Caroline, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, the Duchess of Blair, between 1906 and 1917. It was the last castle to be built in Scotland, and the duchess filled it with an extraordinary collection of nineteenth century European sculpture including the present work after Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. Two versions of the famous composition were carved by Canova in the late eighteenth century and are now in the collections of the Musée du Louvre, Paris and the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.