Jean-Baptiste, called Auguste Clésinger

Overall in good condition with the usual minor scratches to surface (not extensive). Very good presentation. No restorations. Chips to edges of base. Overall with dirt that could easily be cleaned. There is a vertical hairline crack to the drapery located to the back left-hand side of the sculpture, now filled with dirt. Greatest width 10 3/4 in.; depth 10in.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Clésinger was an ambitious man, impatient for success. To ease a favorable reception for his work he became friends with the leading critics. He succeeded in 1847 by causing a sensation with his Woman Bitten by a Snake, a very literal nude depiction of a well-known courtesan who had been the mistress of both the artist and the poet and critic Baudelaire.

Clésinger's work was rarely understated; as Baudelaire wrote of his friend: "As vices go, I agree with him [Clésinger] that excess is worth more than meanness."

Clésinger's continuing ambition led him to aspire to a chair in Académie des Beaux Arts, and to this end he began to practice a more academic form of sculpture. As the critic for L'Artiste wrote in 1863 "Is it not to obtain this [chair] more promptly that Clésinger has finally thrown himself into the arms of Greek revivalism?" It is to this period of classicizing academicism that the present model belongs. Clésinger exhibited four models of Sappho at the Salon after 1858.