* Canova [attrib.] Eve {1885} Loc? [SC]

Canova, Antonio (1757-1822; Italian), attributed to
Eve
Marble, size unknown
Presented by James Chapman, 1885; de-accessioned and sold at auction, 1943
Unidentified; present location unknown

One of four statues documented as presented to the NGV by Chapman in 1885, this work was acknowledged in both the 1894 and 1905 catalogues merely as attributed to Canova. In fact, the suggestion seems fundamentally implausible, not least because the sculptor is not recorded elsewhere as having produced a free-standing Eve.

The statue in question may be the work vaguely visible in the background of the general view of the Stawell Gallery in the 1905 NGV catalogue: see 1905 Stawell Gallery.

In 1943, the work was sold, for an undisclosed price, and appears to have disappeared from sight since: see now 1943 auction of NGV sculpture.

Refs.

AR 1884, p.36 (as received March 1885); SB, p.67 (Statues); NGV 1894, p.133 (VI.Rotunda, no.47: attrib.to Canova); NGV 1905, p.80 (II.Stawell Gallery, no.176: attrib.to Canova)