Dalou was fascinated with the subject of the female nude and worked and re-worked the composition, representing nudes before and after the bath, towelling themselves, standing, seated, taken by surprise or removing their stockings. These intimate figures were the preserve of Dalou's private collectors as they were never exhibited at the Royal Academy or the Salon. Despite this, they did not escape notice and his works of female nudes were well known, and posthumously cast in bronze. The present
Baigneuse is distinguished by her voluptuous figure and natural ease of movement.
RELATED LITERATURE
A. Simier, Jules Dalou, Le sculpteur de la République: Catalogue des sculptures de Jules Dalou conserves au Petit Palais, exh. cat. Petit Palais - Musées des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 2013, pp. 384-385, no. 313