Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguière

Falguière's Diana was exhibited in plaster at the Salon of 1882 to widespread acclaim and became his most celebrated work. Diana epitomises Falguière's piquant ability to bring together the realistic bodies of 19th Century models and the elevated goddess subject. As one critic wrote of his figures, they "seemed to show the traces of a recently removed corset." For more information, see Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'École française au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1910-11, vol. 2, pp. 324-335.