Young bather by Albert Constant Desenfans

Large sculpture depicting a young bather in white Carrara marble. The young woman is captured in an intimate moment at the edge of a spring. Crouching on a rock, she rises while leaning against a tree trunk; at her feet appear aquatic plants and a shell, details that anchor the scene in a discreet and poetic natural setting.
Since Antiquity, the figure of the bather has embodied an ideal of simple and timeless beauty. Taken up again by nineteenth-century sculptors, it became a favored subject for evoking youth, freshness, and the harmonious relationship between the body and nature.
In Desenfans’ work, Carrara marble softly captures the light and emphasizes the purity of the lines. The work belongs to the French tradition of the late nineteenth century, where a taste for the classical ideal combines with a naturalistic sensibility.

French work from the late 19th century – early 20th century by Albert Constant Desenfans, circa 1900.