Footnotes

Provenance
By repute, acquired by the vendor's family from a Vittorio Trois sometime between 1910 and 1920 and placed in the garden of the family villa in the Veneto.
Thence by descent.

Sold together with an engraved brass presentation plate, presumably originally mounted on the stone or marble plinth when the bronze was placed in the garden in the early 20th century, inscribed in Italian EVA, di Roberto Browning Figlio, OR SUPERBITE E VIA COL VISO ALTERO FIGLIUOLI D' EVA,E NON CHINATE IL VOLTO SI CHE VEGGIATE IL VOSTRO MAL SENTIERO!, (Parg XII-70), translating to, 'Now be proud, and away with your haughty faces, you sons of Eve, and do not bow your faces so that you see your evil path! (Parg XVII – 70)'.


The present lot, Eve after Temptation, dating from 1884, represents a monumental and powerful addition to Pen Browning's sculptural oeuvre. Although his larger-than-life Dryope Fascinated by Apollo of 1883 remains his most celebrated and ambitious documented work, Eve after Temptation justifiably deserves renewed attention. Until recently, only the plaster model was known, having been mentioned in 1926 correspondence between Dr A.J. Armstrong, founder of the Armstrong Browning Library at Baylor University, and Pen's widow, Fannie Coddington Browning, in which Armstrong recalls seeing the cast at their home in Asolo, Italy, in 1909¹. Fannie later confirmed it had been sold to a local sculptor after Pen's death². The cast was subsequently offered to the Armstrong Browning Library by Dr. Antonio Morassutti of Montebelluna in 1956 for $1,625³. However, the whereabouts of any bronze cast remained unknown until now. As such, this rediscovery significantly enriches the understanding of Pen's ambitions and artistic development.

Eve after Temptation appears to reflect a deliberate shift in subject and tone following the mixed reception of Dryope. That earlier work, portraying the mythological transformation of a shepherdess by Apollo in serpent form, was provocative for its raw realism and emotionally charged composition. Eve, by contrast, is more introspective, infused with subtle religious resonance. The figure suggests themes of sensuality, guilt, and moral awakening, perhaps suggesting Pen's evolving engagement with myth, psychology, and spirituality.

The bronze was likely cast at the prestigious Thiebaut Frères foundry in Paris, which served artists including Carpeaux, Dalou, Carrier-Belleuse, Pradier, and Rodin — Pen's master. If so, this would underline Pen's connection to a lineage of leading French academic and symbolist sculptors.

Dryope was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1884 (no. 407) after having been rejected by the Royal Academy as "coarse," reportedly due to the opposition of John Callcott Horsley, a known critic of life drawing and the nude. The sculpture later travelled to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Paris Salon of 1885, where critics recognised its complexity. The Times cited it as among the most important works shown that year, though others preferred the more classically restrained style of Lord Leighton's Athlete Wrestling with a Python, which also employed an encircled serpent motif.

The model for both Dryope and Eve was Adèlia Abbruzzesi, reportedly Pen's mistress. She and her sister, Maria Antonia Amelia Abbruzzesi (later Kinloch, then Smyth), also modelled for Rodin, underscoring Pen's proximity to the avant-garde.

A dramatic and sensationalised story grew around the snake used in Dryope, in which Adèlia was supposedly nearly crushed during a sitting, prompting Pen to shoot the serpent. But unpublished correspondence from Robert Browning clarifies that this was apocryphal as the incident involved a different snake belonging to a female performer.⁴ Pen later purchased the serpent, which eventually died under mysterious but peaceful circumstances⁴. For Eve, Pen again posed Adèlia with another snake, which neither attacked the model nor met with violence, underscoring a more serene and perhaps symbolically distinct composition⁴.

Given the hostile response to Dryope, Pen may have deliberately sought a more contemplative, spiritually resonant subject in Eve, completed the following year. While Dryope explores fascination and repulsion, Eve seems to embody a moment of human guilt and awareness, suggesting an artistic evolution from mythic drama to moral introspection.

Pen abandoned monumental sculpture after Dryope failed to find a buyer. He returned to Italy, married the American heiress Fannie Coddington, and turned to collecting and restoring art. Following his death in 1912, his remaining works, including Dryope, were auctioned at Sotheby's⁵. Though Dryope remained unseen for many years it reappeared at the Tate Britain's Exposed: The Victorian Nude exhibition in 2001. In 2006 it was subsequently sold by Bonhams (21 March, lot 88) for £106,400 incl. premium. However, Eve was presumed lost, if indeed a bronze cast had ever been produced from the plaster. The appearance of the current lot therefore not only enriches Pen's known body of work but marks a rediscovery of historical significance.

Primary Sources Cited

1.Dr A.J. Armstrong to Fannie Coddington Browning, May 1926, Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University:

"When I was in Asolo [1909] in the home of Mr. Barrett Browning, there was what I thought was a very beautiful piece of statuary called, 'Eve, after the Temptation.' I wonder if you can't tell me what has become of that piece of statuary."

2.Fannie Coddington Browning to Dr Armstrong, 15 May 1926, Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University:

"'Eve after the Temptation' together with other (& some of them were very large) plaster casts of his work ... were sold to a neighbouring I believe Italian Sculptor—out of Asolo."

3.Dott. Antonio Morassutti to Armstrong Browning Library, 1956. Offer of plaster cast of Eve for $1,625*. Armstrong Browning Library Archives.

*A Photograph of this plaster cast is now in the Armstrong Browning Library Archives and is illustrated in this catalogue entry.

4.Robert Browning to Harper Pennington, 19 February 1884, unpublished letter, Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University:

"Here is the simple story of the Snake and the Model, when stripped of the inevitable newspaper embroidery. Pen's notion in the Statue being to represent the mythological story of 'Dryope fascinated by Apollo in the form of a Serpent'—he had the luck to observe a fine specimen of the latter in the possession of a female 'serpent-charmer' then engaged in exhibiting it and herself. Pen induced her to stand as his model—in her ordinary performing-dress—and made both of them take the position and answer the purpose required: finding eventually that the model for the figure had no sort of objection to the serpent (being a natural lover of such creatures) he dispensed with the 'Charmer,' and completed his work from Adèle only:—after which, having other purposes in view for which the serpent would be serviceable—he bought it outright, and took it away with him to Dinant,—where he had it for some time in apparent health and lively spirits—only, after serpent-fashion, it refused to eat. One day, just an hour after he had been handling and playing with the poor thing—he found it dead in the box it inhabited: no cause was discoverable ... When Adèle, who was away in Paris, heard the news she grieved naturally. ... There was another story of the said serpent having been killed by the fall of the box-lid on his neck: this actually happened to quite another serpent belonging to the Charmer—from whose (that is, the Serpent's) head and portions of the body Pen made a plaster cast: hence the confounding Serpent with serpent—so difficult is it to write veracious history!"

5.Sotheby's Sale Catalogue, London, August 1912. Estate of Pen Browning. Sale authorised by Col. Edward Alfred Moulton-Barrett.

We would like to thank Laura J. French, Curator and her research team at the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco Texas for their invaluable help and kind assistance in preparing this catalogue footnote.