Lot Essay
Although unsigned, the present figure of a nude after bathing relates very closely to the work entitled La Fiorentina, executed by the celebrated sculptor, Piò Fedi, circa 1874, and now in the collection of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (cat. 4226). The original plaster figure for La Fiorentina formed part of the sale of Fedi's studio (lot 78), held in Florence in 1894 by G. Sangiorgi, two years after the sculptor's death. In the same sale, lots 172, 242 and 246 were other versions and variants of the same work, the former being a plaster reduction and the latter two unfinished reduced marbles. It is conceivable that the present figure, differing from the Walker Gallery marble, was one of the unfinished works, completed subsequently by another sculptor.