Louis-Ernest Barrias (French, 1841-1905)

Barrias's most celebrated work, an homage to advances made in scientific exploration, first appeared in marble at the Paris Salon of 1893 by its lengthier title 'La Nature mystérieuse et voilée se découvre devant la Science' (no. 2543) and was fittingly acquired by the faculty at l'École de Médecine in Bordeaux. The figure resurfaced at the 1899 Salon simply titled 'La Nature se dévoilant' (no. 3186), executed in polychrome marble and Algerian onyx, a taste that gained popularity by pioneers in polychromy such as Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier and Eugène Cornu. However, the first casts exhibited by Susse were shown in various sizes and to great critical acclaim at the 1900 Exposition universelle, prompting orders for mixed media models, such as the present example. At the Liège Exhibition of 1905, the renowned bronzier Théodore Millet deemed the model a tour-de-force for the Susse firm and proclaimed it 'the finest of the works exhibited'.