Louis Ernest Barrias

LOUIS ERNEST BARRIAS (France, 1841 - 1905).
"La Nature se dévoilant devant la Science".
Gilt and silver-plated bronze.
Signed by the artist.
With signature and Susse Freres Editeurs foundry stamp.
Measurements: 74 x 26 x 18 cm.

Splendid and majestic sculpture in round bulk made in gilded and silver-plated bronze representing a half-naked woman ("Nature undresses before Science"), considered one of the best works of the author Louis Ernest Barrias. It stands on a rectangular base, and represents a woman of exuberant beauty. The face and neck, elaborated with great perfection and delicacy, deserve special attention. This work is evidence of the sculptor's mastery; its charm and seduction lie in the infinite beauty of the figure, which is accentuated by the impeccable craftsmanship of Louis Ernest Barrias. The treatment of the fabrics, in an infinity of folds and undulations, gives the work a great sense of movement, an essential characteristic of the modernist style it represents. The scarab of the mantle is polychromed in a green tone, original of the period. This sculpture is represented in important European museums.
The son of a miniaturist painter, Louis Ernest Barrias trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts with Jouffroy, and in 1861 he won the second prize in Rome with a bas-relief. Four years later he won the first prize, with the theme "The foundation of Marseilles". That same year, 1865, he made his debut at the Paris Salon with two marble busts, "Jazet" and "Barrias". In 1870 he exhibited in this same exhibition "Fileuse de Megave", a marble that will be sent to Rome. He showed his work at the Paris Salon until 1904, exhibiting works such as "Le Printemps", "La Fortune et l'Amour" or "Mozart infant". Barrias was a prolific artist, and received numerous commissions for monuments, busts, statues and sculptural groups for both the metropolis and the colonies. He produced works in marble, bronze and bronze and ivory, both large and smaller format, edited in various dimensions, such as "Jeune fille de Bou-Saada". His work earned him important awards, including numerous medals and distinctions. He was also a member of the Institute, and succeeded Cavalier as professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His work "La Nature se dévoilant devant la Science" is the best known of his production, considered his great masterpiece and also a paradigm of his time, since it represents the purest Art Nouveau. It was presented in 1893 as a large marble for the Faculty of Medicine in Bordeaux. In 1899 the one that is preserved in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris was made. Among his monumental production we can also highlight "Le Serment de Spartacus" (1872, Tuileries Garden), the monument of the "Défense de Paris", the gigantic monument of eleven meters to "Victor Hugo" and other works, both round and bas-reliefs, for the Paris Opera, the Louvre, the church of the Sorbonne and various urban palaces in Paris, Poitiers, Neuilly and other cities. His works are currently held in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., the Allen Art Museum in Ohio, the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, the Valtion Taidemuseum in Helsinki and the Walters Art Museum in Maryland, among other public and private collections.