A most elegant and high quality French 19th century alabaster statue of 'La Baigneuse" after a model by Falconet. The statue titled "the bathing lady" is raised by a circular base with a wonderfully executed ground like design where the... — Read More

A most elegant and high quality French 19th century alabaster statue of 'La Baigneuse" after a model by Falconet. The statue titled "the bathing lady" is raised by a circular base with a wonderfully executed ground like design where the young lady is standing and about to dip her toe into the water. She is wearing her hair in an updo and holds a wonderfully executed draped towel in her hand while standing next to a tree trunk with striking richly sculpted water floral and a charming finely detailed seashell. Wonderful execution and and exceptional proportions throughout.

Étienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791) is among the highest rank of French Rococo sculptors, whose patron was Mme de Pompadour. Falconet attended l'Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1754. He was appointed as the director of sculpture at the Manufacture Royale de Porcelaine at Sèvres, until he was invited to Russia by Catherine the Great in 1766. In 1788 he returned to Paris and became director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Many of Falconet's religious works, commissioned for churches, were destroyed at the time of the French Revolution. — Read Less