This is a bronze group made by Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) in France, about 1865. The group represents Love Confiding in Friendship and is a reduction in bronze from the original statuette (now disappeared) shown in the 1857 Salon. It was itself shown at the Paris 1863 Union Centrale Exposition. Originally known as 'L'Amour et L'Amitie' (Love and Friendship), it later became known as L'Amour se Confie a l'Amitie' (Love Confiding in Friendship). It typifies the adaptations of styles and themes of a century earlier popular during the 1860s. Many of Carrier- Belleuse's salon works were commercially reproduced by either his own studio or by companies such as Deniere, as is the case with this bronze. One of his assistants in modelling these pseudo-18th century pieces was Auguste Rodin, who was forced for lack of public recognition to earn a living in this way.

Carrier-Belleuse's bronzes and terracottas, finely produced under his supervision, were from 1868 sold in public auctions. His interest in industrial techniques and the decorative arts is seen in designs for goldsmiths and in a book of drawings, 'The Application of the Human Figure to Industrial Decoration and Ornamentation'. He was involved with architectural sculpture to decorate Paris as rebuilt to Haussmann's plans.