Love and the Mermaid

In this sculpture Love (or Cupid) watches the mermaid rising out of the sea onto his rock, but she can only clasp his feet. Compositions involving mermaids were popular with the New Sculptors, appealing to their taste for fantasy. The subject also enabled them to combine the figure and base, which they liked to do. Allen started working on this sculpture in London but completed it in Liverpool. He also made a number of replicas of this work. The Athenaeum critic wrote that the bronze showed 'a great deal of freshness, animation and acceptable execution'.