Sculpture

The Bather

Type: Sculpture(Opens in new tab)
Date: ca. 1861
Accession number: 27.89
Makers: Etienne Maurice Falconet(Opens in new tab) (French, 1716–1791); Gaetano Mercanti(Opens in new tab) (Italian, 1750–1950); Unknown, French, 18th Century(Opens in new tab) (French)
Dimensions: Without pedestal: 54 ½ x 14 ½ x 25 in. (138.4 x 36.9 x 63.6 cm)
Medium: white marble on grey marble pedestal
Description: The sculpture portrays a standing woman emerging from her bath, a towel partially covers her.
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Collection.
Department: European Art
Find out more: View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)

Label text

This large marble Venus was sold to Henry Huntington in 1927 as the work of the French 18th-century sculptor Falconet. It is in fact a 19th-century work by the Italian sculptor Mercanti, exhibited in Florence in 1861. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the high demand for 18th-century sculpture from collectors such as Henry Huntington often resulted in spurious re-attributions.

The Bather

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