The Seine
Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720) 路 1703-1706
A mature river god reclines against the rock, his beard flowing like the water he personifies, one arm resting on an urn. A small faun plays at his side, a reminder of the countryside that the river runs through. The figure is nearly three metres long and was designed for a stone edge beside water at Marly. Notice the signature A. Coyzevox under the right foot and the date 1706 on the neighbouring rock. On the plinth under the little faun's hoof someone later carved the words Le Rh么ne, which is why the group was long known by the wrong name.
The Seine belongs to a set of four river and sea figures commissioned in 1698 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart for the long water called the Rivi猫re at Marly: the Seine, the Marne, Neptune and Amphitrite. Plaster models were made in 1698 and 1699 and set in place; the marble was begun in 1702, once Coysevox had finished his Mercury and Fame, and was recorded in the park in 1707. The group left Marly in 1801 and reached the Louvre in 1872, one of the first of the Marly marbles to come indoors.
Did You Know? A false inscription naming the river Rh么ne was cut into the plinth long after Coysevox's death and misled visitors for generations.
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