Venus and the Sphinx

Auguste Préault

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like much of the sculpture of the Romantic movement in French art, Préault's work was rejected from the Paris Salons throughout the 1830s and 1840s. Official recognition came after the Revolution of 1848. This plaster group is the working model for the commission of 1867 for the imperial palace at Fontainbleau.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art