A FRENCH PATINATED BRONZE FIGURE ENTITLED 'DIANE APRES LE BAIN', ON PEDESTAL

Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercie had a notable career spanning from the early 1870s until his death in 1916, and his most notable works include the bronze sculptures of David (1872) and Gloria Victis (1874). The present sculpture is a bronze version of a marble entitled La Toilette de Diane, which was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1891 (n. 2743). In contrast to his more famous compositions, the present model was edited in only small numbers and very few bronze versions are recorded (S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole Francaise au dix-neuvieme siecle, vol. 3, Paris, 1970, pp. 431-34).