Dalou first conceived his magnum opus 'Monument aux Ouvriers' in 1889, and worked on the project intermittently throughout the last decade of his life. Dalou wished to create a monument to the glory and nobility of human labour, and by 1898 he had planned a columnar composition extending 32 metres in height. The lowest register of the shaft was to bear life-size figures of workers within niches. In pursuit of this intended monument, Dalou travelled extensively, sketching farm, factory and dock workers from life. These were then transformed into terracotta bozzetti in hs studio. The clay models were mostly left in his studio at his death, and were cast posthumously from 1902 in bronze by Hébrard and later Susse. The present lot, and the following three lots are part of this sensitively modelled and realistc series, of which the original terracottas are now in the Petit Palais, Paris.