Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguière

Falguière was one of the foremost sculptors in late 19th century France. He exhibited for 39 consecutive years at the Paris Salon from 1863, after winning the Prix de Rome in 1859. His nudes were eagerly anticipated at the yearly exhibitions and notorious in the press for their indecent modernity. Peter Fusco cites one critic who wrote that 'these figures seemed to show the traces of a recently removed corset.' Falguière's Diana was one of his most popular models, and he also produced an independent study of the head. The present marble represents a rare large version of the figure.

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Fusco and  H. W. Janson, The Romantics to Rodin, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980, pp. 258-9, no. 130