ATTRIBUTED TO COADE, LONDON, AFTER SIR RICHARD WESTMACOTT, R. A., CIRCA 1835

This statue model has been known as 'Westmacott's nymph' since the 1820s. The original marble of 'Venus attiring herself after the bath' was executed by the Rome-trained sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, R.A. (d. 1856) and acquired for Castle Howard, Yorkshire after exhibition at the 1824 Royal Academy. However it is the white plaster model 'The Nymph of Westmacott' displayed in the ealy 1820s by the architect Sir John Soane (d. 1837) 'in a beautiful recess' at his London mansion/museum that has become particularly celebrated as 'A nymph unclasping her zone'. The belt or girdle known as a 'Zone' (Grecian) or 'Cingulum' (Latin) was worn in antiquity by unmarried girls until their marriage (see P. Thornton and H. Dorey, Sir John Soane's Museum, London 1992; and M. Busco, Sir Richard Westmacott, Cambridge, 1994, p. 100).