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The first contract for the Rue de Grenelle fountain was signed between the city of Paris and Bouchardon on 6 March 1739. And in that year Bouchardon exhibited at the Salon his terracotta first model for the Cupid.
In the final fountain there is a startling contrast between the white marble figures of Paris, with the reclining Seine and Marne, and the honey-coloured stone against which they are set. Only the central group is in marble, so that the statues of the Seasons tend to merge into their niches, and even the famous bas-reliefs below play only a minor part in the scheme as a decorative whole.
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