Jean-Baptiste, called Auguste Clésinger 1814-1883 woman bitten by a snake second half 19th century

When Clésinger exhibited the life-size marble of Woman Bitten by a Snake at the Salon of 1847, he caused a sensation by daring to show a female nude without historical or mythological disguise. The shocking realism of the voluptuous and erotic nude divided the critics, with Théophile Gautier and Thoré hailing it as a masterpiece while Gustave Planche and even Chopin protested its indecency. The work was commissioned in 1846 by the financier Alfred Mosselman, the lover of Clésinger's former mistress, Apollonie Sabatier, who was the model for the work.

A similar example sold Sotheby's London, April 21, 2004, lot 104