Maillol's first figurative sculptures were carved from wood - see for example the “Standing Bather” in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, originally in the collection of Prince Antoine Bibesco, which served as the model for the present bronze.
It was the dealer Ambroise Vollard who first suggested to Maillol that bronze casts could be made from his woodcarvings. Maillol subsequently produced two versions in plaster from the wood carving of the Standing Bather: this present model is almost identical to the wood carving.
The contract of 1902 with Vollard gave no limit to the number of bronzes which could be cast - this was usual for this period. The number of casts Vollard edited is unknown and whilst some of the small models such as 'Baigneuse sé coiffant' were rather popular, examples of the present work are rare.
In 1907 Ambroise Vollard began using the Florentin Godard foundry to cast these Maillol models and from 1909 to 1939 he used them exclusively, as the papers in the Vollard estate prove. Florentin Godard was a sand cast foundry, they rarely marked their casts with their name and never numbered them.
This 'Baigneuse debout' is a good and typical bronze of the Vollard edition, cast by Florentin Godard, and carefully chiseled and patinated.
