CAST BY A. A. HEBRARD FROM THE MODEL BY AIME-JULES DALOU (1838-1902), PARIS, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH CENTURY

'La Brodeuse', the embroider, is the first of Dalou’s sculptures showing young women seated, reading, washing, sewing or holding children. These homely scenes occupied Dalou for a decade and were hugely popular. Their intimacy and sentimentality belie the modernity, almost radicalism, with which they were viewed at the time – when set alongside the heroic and grandiose sculpture of the Second Empire. A lifesize plaster of La Brodeuse was exhibited at the Salon in 1870 and bought by the State for 3000 fr. to be carved in marble. This bronze is cast from a plaster sketch, and the fluidity of Dalou’s hand modelling remains visible in the bronze. It is one of a small edition cast by the Hébrard foundry; among a number of bronzes that Dalou reserved in his will to be cast to benefit the Orphelinat des Arts and so take care of his daughter Georgette after his death.