This sumptuous monumental statue was made by the French sculptor Amand-Désiré-Honoré Barré in Statuary Carrara marble to be exhibited at the Salon of 1875 in Paris. In 1878, this statue was selected to represent French sculpture at the Universal Exhibition.
This sculpture represents Armida's dream, an episode inspired by the epic poem written by Torquato Tasso, a 16th-century Italian poet, entitled Jerusalem Delivered. This poem is a fictional narrative of the first Crusade (1096 - 1099) which narrates in particular the story of Armida, an enchanting young Saracen, daughter of the King of Damascus, and Rinaldo, a young Christian knight.

The sculptor signs discreetly under the shield: "am. Barré". Amand-Désiré-Honoré Barré, a sculptor born in the Orne region in France and a student of Victor-Edmond Leharivel-Durocher, was active in Paris in the 1860s and 1870s.

At the Salon of 1873 taking place at the Palais des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Amand Barré exposes, at no. 1507, a plaster of a statue called Le Rêve d'Armide. For the same year, the french National Archives keeps a document concerning an application for a marble block or a workshop, which is probably done since the marble statue of Armida's dream is exhibited at the Salon of 1875.

The book Les Beaux-Arts à l’Exposition Universelle de 1878 written by Duval mentions "No. 1082, Armida’s dream, voluptuous study largely treated by Mr. Barré".
An old photograph of the Fine Arts Gallery of the 1878 Universal Exhibition that we were able to find reveals a large part of this sculpture in the Trocadero Palace.

Not located since then, this masterpiece of sculpture is now rediscovered and its retraced history is a major event