Raoul Verlet

Charles-Raoul Verlet began exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1880 and won a second class medal in 1997. At the Expositions Universelles of 1889 and 1900 he won the gold medal and the medal of honour with the Grand Prix. Several of his sculptures were edited in bronze by various founders, notably his most successful model, La Douleur d'Orphée (Orpheus), which was cast by Barbedienne.

This sensuous marble depicts Salammbô, the titular heroine of the historical novel (1862) by Gustave Flaubert. A priestess and the daughter of the foremost Carthaginian general during the Mercenary Revolt, Salammbô performs a ritual dance with a sacred serpent, whose eroticised description was considered scandalous by contemporary critics but inspired numerous representations in art.