Aimé-Jules Dalou
(Paris 1838-1902)

Avant le Bain

Bronze, black-brown over brown-red patina
Signed 'Dalou' and with the 'A.A. Hébrard Cire Perdue' seal
Original edition, ca. 1920
Height 55cm

Avant le bain belongs to the series of individual female nudes which Aimé-Jules Dalou modelled during the 1870s. They were his private counterpart to the Royal Academy exhibits. They were never exhibited and seem to have been made for the artists own interest. They showcase Dalou's marvellous dexterity as the malleable clay captures the soft and curved essence of the female form. Delicately observed, the nudes are nevertheless focused on the realism of folds of flesh and moments of everyday life. As Hunisak has observed, the nudes pre-figure Degas' well-known studies of similar private and quiet moments. The present nude clasps her arms across her chest against the cold, perhaps in the instant before bathing.

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