Louis Ernest Barrias – La nature se dévoilant pour la science

This sculpture “La nature se dévoilant pour la science” by Louis Ernest Barrias (1841-1905) was commissioned in 1889 to adorn the new Faculty of Medicine in Bordeaux. A young woman, the allegory of nature, slowly lifts the veils that envelop her.
After completing the first version in white marble for the decoration of the building, Barrias designed a second, polychrome version for the main staircase of the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris. Given the success of the work, many editions were produced in marble, in bronze, and in bronze combined with marble or ivory. The bronze version comes in different sizes: 25 cm high is the smallest version, a copy of 43 cm, and one of 98 cm.

This bronze statue is made in different colours. It is partly gilded, especially the shawl she wears over her head and shoulders and the upper naked part of her body. The skirt she wears down to her breasts is dark brown patinated bronze. A scarab is attached to the skirt at the height of her breasts as a kind of button.

The statue stands on a bronze base signed E. Barrias