BY LOUIS ALEXANDRE BOTTÉE, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

Emblazoned with a celebrated verse by Voltaire – “whoever you are, here is your master, he is, he was or must be” – this statue reprises the phrase first composed in the 18th century to enrich a sculpture of cupid in the gardens of Sceaux. It was also inscribed on a marble sculpted by Etienne-Maurice Falconet (d. 1791) for Madame de Pompadour and employed throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries. A nearly identical sculpture by Bottée sold Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 2012, lot 172 (£18,750).