A fine French patinated bronze model of Adonis resting after the hunt, after the model by Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733), late 18th or early 19th century, the male subject portrayed seated on a tree trunk, flanked by a hound, on a naturalistically modelled base, 35cm high, 26cm wide Nicolas Coustou was a sculptor who worked in the tradition of the Academic 'grand manner'. Along with his brother, Guillaume Coustou, he often enjoyed the patronage of King Louis XV and Louis XVI at Versailles, Marly and elsewhere. The present model is a reduction of the marble group Coustou created for one such Royal commission, specifically the gardens of the Chateau of Marly. The marble, which dates from 1710, is now in the collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Coustou produced numerous other groups for the Park, including two models of Meleager slaying animals, and personifications of the Seine and Marne rivers. See Christie's 8 December 2011, lot 251, for another cast of this model dated to the first half of the 18th century (£6,250).