Aimé Jules Dalou (d. 1902) studied under Carpeaux and became one of the most versatile and outstanding French sculptors of the 19th century. Boycotting the official Salon from 1861 onwards, exhibiting instead at the so-called Salon des Refusés, he was vehemently opposed to the classicism which dominated sculpture under the Second Empire. Fleeing to London after the crushed revolution of 1871, in which he took an active part, he taught sculpture at South Kensington and was to greatly influence the trend in the late 19th century English sculpture towards greater naturalism. Returning to Paris, he was a founder member of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts in 1890. The present model is reminiscent of the figures in Dalou's Monument to Delacroix in its exhuberance of movement and sensuality. Between 1902 and 1905, the executors of Dalou's estate authorized casts by Hébrard as the artist was not interested in marketing his work in his lifetime.