Antique 19th Century Bronze Marly Horse Statues

A pair of 19th century French Marley horses for sale. They are modelled after those commissioned by Louis XVI for the château de Marly in 1739.

This pair of Marley horses both feature equestrians with reigns (the reigns have come away from the horses face on one of the horses).

History: The Marly Horses, sculpted between 1743 and 1745, are a seminal set of Carrara marble sculptures by renowned sculptor Guillaume Coustou. The sculptures depict rearing horses, masterfully tamed by their groom. Commissioned by King Louis XV of France, these captivating figures were designed to grace the water trough at the entrance of his luxurious château de Marly. These sculptures came into existence as replacements for two previous works—Mercury on Pegasus and Pegasus, Renown of Horses—both by Antoine Coysevox, which were repositioned to the Tuileries Gardens in 1719.

Remarkably, after selecting the preliminary models in 1743, Louis XV saw the full-scale masterpieces come to life within just two years. Once the Marley horses were installed at Marly in 1745, these sculptures didn’t merely sit as static works of art; they became cultural icons. Their design was reproduced extensively, particularly in smaller forms, and went on to inform the oeuvre of Romantic artists like Théodore Géricault who were enamored with equestrian themes. In a more contemporary twist, the Marly Horses were even incorporated into the monochrome 819-line RTF/ORTF test card, used on the French television network TF1 from 1953 until 1983.

Marley horses proved highly successful in reproduction, particularly on a smaller scale, and prefigured Théodore Géricault and other Romantic artists’ obsession with equestrian subjects. They were later also used as the central motif of the monochrome 819-line RTF/ORTF test card which was used on TF1 from 1953 until 1983.

The original Marley horses were moved to the place de la Concorde in Paris in 1794 and Louis-Denis Caillouette (1790–1868) restored them in 1840. In 1984 it was concluded that the annual military parades on 14 July were damaging the Marley horse statues and they were replaced by marble copies produced by Michel Bourbon in the studio of a subsidiary of Bouygues. The latter also gained the right to an extra copy, which was placed in Bouygues’s social building. The original sculptures were moved to a former courtyard in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre Museum, which was renamed the ‘cour Marly’ in their honour, whilst Bourbon’s two main copies were moved to the originals’ first site near the trough at Marly, with work overseen by the architect Serge Macel.

Weight: The horses weigh 8.kg each and are very sturdy bronze (see picture of the bottom).
Dimensions: They are 40cm high and 33cm long.
Date: unknown (early 19th century). The horses are not signed.
Condition: as shown. They have not been cleaned. They are in good condition apart from the detached reigns.

For more beautiful 19th century French, we recommend our 19th Century Boulle Mantle Clock.