HUBERT LE SUEUR (C. 1580-1658)
Boy with a thorn in his foot, 'Spinario'
1636-37RCIN 26319
In 1631, the French sculptor Hubert Le Sueur was employed by Charles I to travel to Italy, and bring ‘from thence the moulds and patterns of certain figures and antiques there’. This bronze is one of these figures and is a copy from the marble statue made by Agasias in Rome c.100 bc. It stood in Queen Henrietta Maria’s garden at Somerset House, which Charles I had gifted her on their marriage.