Standing Bather
- 126
The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 4-May 25, 1980; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, June 25-September 21, 1980; The Detroit Institute of Arts, October 27, 1980-January 4, 1981, no. 72, as Standing Bather.
For Standing Bather, Jules Dalou took inspiration from antique sculptures of the Venus Pudica, or “modest Venus,” in which the goddess attempts to cover her naked body with her hands and drapery. While the subject and Dalou’s idealized treatment of the body continue classical traditions, the figure’s softly curled hair, delicate facial features, and cascading drapery reflect the influence of French Rococo models of the 1700s.
Although best known for his work related to public monuments, Dalou produced a significant group of single female bathers over the course of his career.
Léon Richeton (1854-1934), London, by November 14, 1931;
Purchased from Richeton by Brummer Gallery, Paris, stock no. H110, November 14, 1931-December 10, 1931 [1];
With Brummer Gallery, Paris, on joint account with Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., New York, December 10, 1931-November 9, 1932;
Purchased from Brummer Gallery and Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932.
NOTES:
[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archives, Brummer Gallery Records, Modern sculptures and paintings, object inventory card number H110.
The Art Digest 7 (April 15, 1933): 32, (repro.).
“Nelson Gallery of Art Special Number,” The Art Digest 8, no. 5 (December 1, 1933): 34, (repro.).
Peter Fusco, The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1980), 191, (repro.), as Standing Bather.
