After Jean-Jacques Pradier, called James

This elegant composition derives from one of Pradier's most accomplished models, his Etoile du berger, Le Jour which, together with its pendant of La Nuit, was conceived by the sculptor in 1846. The present variant of Le Jour suspends the female figure atop a putto, seemingly taking inspiration from Joseph Michel-Ange Pollet's celebrated Une heure de la nuit of 1848, whose figure similarly rises upwards in a graceful curve. Though formerly attributed to Pradier, the present variant and its corresponding pendant are now thought to have originated among Pradier's followers. 

RELATED LITERATURE

C. Lapaire, James Pradier (1790-1852) et la sculpture française de la génération romantique, Milan, 2010, p. 358 nos. 292-293 and pp. 440-441, nos. 538-539