The image of the kneeling fauness (or nymph) appears at the far left of the tympanum of Rodin's monumental masterpiece The Gates of Hell. That particular figure is short-haired and has the expression more like that of a satyr than a nymph (although undeniably female) and is, like the present work, kneeling with hands clasped behind the head. That variant may have been conceived as early as 1884 and there exist a number of bronze versions in various private and public collections, including the Western Australia Art Gallery in Perth and a plaster variant in the Musée Rodin in Paris. There are also bronze versions of the closely related La Toilette de Vénus in which the figure, like this one, has long hair but is twisted slightly to the side as if in motion. A marble of that image (titled Morning) is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

None of the above kneeling figures represent the stately and sensuous ideal so evident in the calm provocative posture of this kneeling fauness. In this size, it is probably unique, particularly insofar as it is both signed and dated. A slightly smaller marble version, undated, is in a private Japanese collection.

Two years before the artist's death and three before the end of what was then known as The Great War, Rodin donated this sculpture to an auction in Paris to raise money for the medical expenses of allied soldiers wounded in the first months of fighting.