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Dimensions: measurements 39 in. alternate measurements 99 cm

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Literature: Romantics to Rodin p.118-120, no.10 A. Bluhm, pp.185-6, no.58

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Notes: La Nature is Barrias's most famous work and is one of the prime examples of the fashion for coloured sculpture so prevalent at the end of the nineteenth century. Its high-brow title only thinly disguises the essence of the composition: a beautiful woman undressing. The deeply charged mood is reflected in many Symbolist paintings, while the general treatment relates to the emerging Art Nouveau. Barrias initially executed the figure in marble, naked except for a long veil down her back. This was exhibited at the Salon in 1863 and acquired by the Ecole de Medecine in Bordeaux. A replica was made for Carl Jacobsen three years later. In 1899, Barrias exhibited a second smaller version, commissioned by the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, which combined several different marbles and this is the one on which all subsequent polychrome examples are based. The Susse foundry produced this model in at least five sizes and with a variety of combinations of materials, some entirely of bronze with coloured patinas, some with bronze and ivory, others with marbles and bronze.