This gilded wall sculpture depicts a classical bather at the water's edge: a standing nude female figure, hair gathered in a high knot, one foot resting on a naturalistic rocky outcrop, drapery gathered in one hand at the hip while the head inclines gently downward. The figure is mounted on its own turned socle, in turn set on a separate gilt wall bracket with a scrolling shell-form corbel — designed to be displayed as a fixed wall piece rather than a free-standing statue.

The pose closely follows “La Baigneuse” (also known as “Vénus au bain”), the celebrated marble by the French Neoclassical sculptor Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (1710–1795), whose original stands in the Louvre. It became one of the most widely reproduced compositions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cast in bronze, spelter, and other metal alloys for the decorative market across Europe. The present figure, cast in a gilded metal alloy consistent with that decorative tradition, carries an impressed signature reading “ALGRAIN” on the socle — a mark consistent with this broader Allegrain-derived production, though we are presenting it with appropriate caution rather than as a confirmed autograph work.

Gallery pieces of this type were produced in quantity for the bourgeois interior — console tables, mantels, and stairwell niches — as accessible, decorative echoes of a Louvre masterpiece rather than as unique sculptural works. This example's wall-bracket mounting and gilt finish place it firmly within that tradition: a confident, well-modelled decorative object rather than a museum-grade bronze.

Attribution note: the piece is offered as a gilt decorative figure in the manner of Allegrain's “La Baigneuse,” with a cast signature reading “Algrain.” We have not been able to confirm whether this mark refers to the sculptor Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain, to a foundry/maker's mark, or to an unrelated name — this is stated plainly rather than resolved into a firm attribution.

Medium: Gilt spelter/cast metal alloy, on a separate gilt wall console Date: To be confirmed — decorative production consistent with late 19th–early 20th century Style: Neoclassical, decorative