Fratelli Poletti e Ghio (20th century) after Christophe Gabr - Lot 27

Fratelli Poletti e Ghio (20th century) after Christophe Gabriel ALLEGRAIN ( 1710-1795) The Bather known as Venus in the Bath Statue in Carrara marble H. approx. 200 cm SOLD BY DESIGNATION Born into a family of artists, Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain married the sister of sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in 1732. A close collaborator of Pigalle's, he gradually freed himself from his brother-in-law's tutelage and became famous for his marble Venus emerging from the bath, commissioned by Louis XV to decorate the Château de Choisy (now in Paris, Musée du Louvre). Exhibited at the Salon of 1767 and admired by Diderot, the statue was presented by the king to his favorite Madame Du Barry in 1772. From the moment of its presentation at the Salon, the work was a huge success. A succession of replicas, varying in size and materials, were made of the model over the centuries. A jewel of classical 18th-century French art, the Bather is reproduced here in marble by the famous workshop run since 1963 by brothers Giovanni Tonino and Vittorio Poletti and Luciano Ghio in Carrara.