The Dead Bird

Description This sentimental piece, formerly attributed to Etienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), depicts the nude figure of a young girl seated with a dead bird on her right knee and her hands clasped to the left in a gesture of sorrow. This subject in art is associated with lost innocence.The piece is sculpted in the round, and is on a marble base.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
2/19/1959	Treatment	cleaned

Provenance Octave Homberg, Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Octave Homberg Sale, Paris, May 16, 1906, no. 724; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1906, by purchase [through Jacques Seligmann]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1906