Louis Ernest Barrias – La nature se dévoilant pour la science

Louis-Ernest Barrias (1841-1905) was a French sculptor from the école des beaux arts. In 1865 he won the Prix de Rome.
He was involved in the decoration of the Paris Opera and the Hotel de la Paiva on the Champs-Elysees. Barrias created many impressive works of art in Paris and one of his most famous works is this statue “La Nature se devoilant pour la Science”.

The first version of the marble statue from 1889 was intended for the medical faculty in Bordeaux, where it stood to the left of the stairs opposite a marble statue by Pierre Jules Cavelier, Barrias’s teacher. The later version of 1895, commissioned by the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, was made of white marble, polychrome onyx and wore a lapis-lazuli dress with brilliant jewels on a granite base. This statue was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, then moved to the Museum in Luxembourg, finally returning to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris in 1986.

In 1899, Barrias was commissioned by the Ministere de l’Instruction Publique to make smaller versions of the statue using luxury materials. Since then, several versions have been produced, sometimes in bronze with marble bronze, or with ivory, or just in bronze. Not only with different materials, but also in different sizes, versions of this statue have been made after 1899. These versions of the original statue from Bordeaux can be seen in many museums.

This example is the medium-sized version of 44 cm and is made exclusively of bronze, partly gilded, partly dark brown patinated. In the middle under her breasts the cloth is held together by a scarab.
The statue is signed on the bronze base: E. Barrias
Bronze caster’s stamp: Susse Frères Paris stamped and written.