Venus Coming Out Of The Bath Christophe-gabriel Allegrain-f Barbedienne

Large bronze sculpture with medal patina after "Venus leaving the bath", also known as "La Baigneuse" by Gabriel-Christophe Allégrain (Paris, 1710-1795). Signed on the base GC ALLEGRAIN FECITE 1767, F Barbedienne Founder and bears the A. Collas mechanical reduction stamp. The original neoclassical marble was commissioned in 1755 by the Marquis de Marigny (1727-1781), Director General of the King's Buildings, for his Château de Choisy-le-Roi. The plaster model was presented at the Salon of 1757 and the marble statue at the Salon of 1767 where it was noticed by Denis Diderot who left a famous comment: “Beautiful, beautiful, sublime figure; they even say the most beautiful, the most perfect figure that the moderns have made [...] The beautiful shoulders, that they are beautiful, as this back is chubby, what form of an arm, what precious, what miraculous truths of nature in all these parts ”. This is the first major order placed with the sculptor. Allegrain was significantly inspired by a small bronze by the mannerist sculptor Jean de Bologne, "Bather placing her foot on a vase of perfume", taking up the sinuous line of the body, the drooping shoulders, the high chest and the hairstyle composed of pigtails sophisticated. The sculpture was acquired by Louis XV who offered it on April 12, 1772 to his favorite, the Countess Du Barry (1743-1793) who installed it in the park of her castle in Louveciennes. The original is currently kept in the Louvre Museum. Bronze proof was carried out in the 19th century, by the Parisian bronzier Barbebienne Beautiful patina, in very good condition * Ferdinand Barbedienne, born August 6, 1810 in Saint-Martin-de-Fresnay and died March 21, 1892 in Paris, was a French industrialist, known for his artistic bronze foundry. Bibliography: Michèle Beaulieu, "A study of Allegrain for the Venus in the bath", in BSHAF, 1955, pp. 59-62.