French school circa 1900, after Claude Michel dit Clodion (1738-1814) Reclining Naiad known as "La Source" White marble H : 25 cm, W : 40 cm, D : 24 cm Small accident and restoration at the back, dust and dirt Related work : Alexandre Théodore Brongniart, Paris, Hôtel de Besenval, Nymphée souterrain à l'antique, drawing, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 51520 Related literature : Anne L. Poulet, Guilhem Scherf, Clodion, 1738-1814, cat. exp. Paris, Musée du Louvre, 17 March-29 June 1992, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1992, model listed under n°51, pp. 248-251 With closed eyes, leaning against an urn spilling water, this reclining Naiad known as La Source is based on the life-size figure created by Clodion at the request of Peter-Josef-Victor de Besenval, Baron de Bronstadt, for the decoration of the bathroom of his hotel in the rue de Grenelle in Paris. Completed in 1782, the decoration imagined by Clodion and strongly inspired by antiquity included two friezes in relief representing Venus and Love with Leda and the swan and Pan pursuing Syrinx under the gaze of Love, four vases and the sculpture of The Source which surmounted the fountain supplying water to the bathtub. The large figure made of thunder stone later became part of the collection of James-Edmond de Rothschild. Today the work is unlocated, probably looted during the Second World War. During his lifetime, Clodion made reductions of it. The success of the work led to numerous posthumous reproductions in bronze and marble throughout the 19th century.