HÉLÈNE BERTAUX (FRENCH, 1825-1909)

Hélène Bertaux was a sculptor, founder and president of the Union des femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs, an organization focused on teaching and promoting women in drawing and sculpture in a time when creating true works of art was deemed by some as too challenging for them. During the late 19th century, sculptresses were rare; women were often relegated to be only the subject or muse for a work of art. Because of Bertaux’s advocacy, the École des beaux-arts admitted its first female student in 1897.
Bertaux exhibited a plaster cast of the present model in the Paris Salon of 1873, the same year as the present work. The poem inscribed on the front and back relates to the writings of contemporary author Victor Hugo in his Les Orientales, XIX.
Multiple reductions were made of Jeune fille au bain. Thus life-size bronze is the largest version of the model to come to auction in recent years. A life-size marble version is in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.