Dalou, Nude Woman Reading In An Armchair, Figurative Bronze

Bronze with a nuanced brown patina, Nude woman reading in an armchair, by Aimé-Jules Dalou (1838–1902). Signed “DALOU” on the terrace.

Femme nue lisant dans un fauteuil (1878) is a bronze statuette by Aimé-Jules Dalou. It depicts a nude woman seated in an armchair, absorbed in reading, in an intimate, everyday scene.

This work belongs to a series of realistic statuettes showing women in simple moments of daily life, often inspired by the artist’s close surroundings. The model appears captured spontaneously, without an academic pose. Here, Dalou combines realism and sensitivity, while paying great attention to detail and the softness of forms.

Dalou’s statuettes of women are less well known than his figures of workers; he inaugurated this genre as early as 1870 with Woman Embroidering, exhibited at the Salon.

Fine lost-wax cast bronze with a nuanced brown patina, the armchair with a subtle aubergine tint. The same model is held in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay.
Circa 1880.