A FRENCH PATINATED-BRONZE FIGURE OF A SEATED LADY ENTITLED 'LA BRODEUSE' (THE EMBROIDERER)

'La Brodeuse', the embroider, is the first of Dalou’s sculptures showing young women seated, reading, washing, sewing or holding children. These homely scenes occupied Dalou for a decade and were hugely popular. Their intimacy and sentimentality belie the modernity, almost radicalism, with which they were viewed at the time – when set alongside the heroic and grandiose sculpture of the Second Empire. A lifesize plaster of La Brodeuse was exhibited at the Salon in 1870 and bought by the State for 3000 fr. to be carved in marble. This bronze is cast from a plaster sketch, and the fluidity of Dalou’s hand modelling remains visible in the bronze. It is one of a small edition cast by the Hébrard foundry; among a number of bronzes that Dalou reserved in his will to be cast to benefit the Orphelinat des Arts and so take care of his daughter Georgette after his death.