Jean-Jacques, dit James Pradier 1790-1852 the standing sappho

The Standing Sappho is the most famous example of a series of sensual Antique women which Pradier created during the 1840's, a period which has been caracterized as the decade of the Pradier Salon Woman. The famous French critic/writer Théophile Gautier enthused over the figure's "souple draperie, flottante et precise," and it is certainly the most sensuous of his three versions of the subject.

Born in Geneva, Pradier left for Paris in 1807 to work with his elder brother, an engraver. He won the Prix de Rome  that enabled him to study in the Villa Medici from 1814 to 1818. He studied under Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in Paris and in 1827 became a member of the Académie des beaux-arts and a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts.