CAST BY SUSSE FRERES, PARIS, FROM THE MODEL BY LOUIS-ERNEST BARRIAS, CIRCA 1900

This exquisite allegorical figure was first exhibited at the 1893 Paris Salon and acquired by the École de Médecine in Bordeaux. Barrias re-worked the model slightly, but maintained the depiction of Nature as a voluptuous woman slowly unfastening her robe. Barrias often had the figure enriched with a variety of materials and patinas, as in the present example, adding to the sense of opulence typical of the fin-de-siècle.