Jules Joseph LEFEBVRE (Tournan-en-Brie, 1834 - Paris, 1912) Woman in the bath Oil on canvas, oval (Original canvas) Signed and localised 'Jules. Lefebvre / Rome' lower left Two labels on verso Woman at bath, oil on canvas, signed and located, by J. J. Lefebvre 57.48 x 43.70 in. 146 x 111 cm Provenance: Schustermann Collection, according to a label on the frame on the reverse; Private collection, Italy Exhibitions: Probably Paris, Salon of 1864 (not mentioned in the booklet, but noted by Gustave Haller) Bibliography: Probably Jules Claretie, Peintes & Sculpteurs contemporains. Deuxième série. Artistes vivants en janvier 1881, Paris, 1882-1884, p. 348 Probably Gustave Haller, Nos grands peintres, Paris, 1899, p. 117 (fig. 1) Sent from Rome, our painting is a moving reminder of the young painter Jules Lefebvre's stay in Italy. In 1861, he won the Prix de Rome with Death of Priam (Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, no. PRP 111) and was thus appointed to the Villa Medici. Jules Claretie wrote in Peintres et sculpteurs contemporains: "From Rome, in 1863, Jules Lefebvre sent his Charité romaine and a baigneuse. They were already the exquisite nudes of today".1 This bather was part of the academic work imposed by his training in Rome at the Académie de France. Like his predecessors, Lefèbvre studied Antiquity and observed the attitudes, curves and tensions of the body. The attitude of our bather is reminiscent of Spinario, as well as the works of illustrious 18th-century sculptors such as Etienne Falconet and Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain. However, because of its large format, our painting is more akin to a history painting, showing the ambition of a young painter still in training. Our painting reinterprets the theme of Diana in the bath wiping her foot - a motif also depicted by Antoine Watteau around 1715-1716 - in a composition imbued with poetry and whose freshness of source seems to reach us. 1 - Roman Charity is in the Musée Municipal de Melun (FNAC FH 860-172). Jules Joseph LEFEBVRE (Tournan-en-Brie, 1834 - Paris, 1912) 146 x 111 cm