Mysterious and Veiled Nature Reveals Herself Before Science

Description Barrias, who was noted for his female allegorical figures, produced a nude version of this subject in white marble for the Faculty of Medicine at Bordeaux in 1893. Six years later, responding to the renewed interest in multicolored sculpture inspired by ancient Greek accounts, he exhibited at the Paris Salon such a statue of Nature that was partially draped. It was made of red and gold onyx, malachite, and lapis lazuli. This highly decorative, smaller replica of the 1899 statue was issued by the foundry Susse Frères the same year. A final version in white marble, made in 1902, was acquired by the École de Medicine in Paris.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
10/01/1945	Treatment	cleaned
8/19/1982	Treatment	cleaned; examined for condition
8/25/1982	Treatment	cleaned; other
5/29/1998	Examination	examined for condition
5/29/1998	Loan Consideration	examined for exhibition
3/27/2002	Treatment	other

Exhibitions

• To Arrest the Ravages of Time: Caring for Art at the Walters. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1996.
• Degas and the Little Dancer. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1998-1999.

Provenance Susse Frères, Paris; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1900, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] E Barrias [Foundry Mark] Susse Frères editeurs, Paris

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1900