White marble figure on an integral marble base.

Pierre Campagne produced this model around 1894. The figure is naked with drapery wrapped around her arms on a square base inscribed Campagne (Sculpteur) and with title Phryne incised to front.  

In Classical mythology Phryne was a famous courtesan of Ancient Greece.  Famed for her extraordinary beauty she could command any price she chose for her favours.  According to legend Phryne cleverly used her physical beauty as a defence against accusations of profanity in the court of the Areopagus.  She opened her robe to reveal her naked beauty and the judges acquitted her.  This moment, immortalised in the painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Phryne before the Areopagus, 1861, is captured by Pierre Campagne in this work.

Campagne was a student of Falguière.  He exhibited at the Paris Salon beginning in 1889, showing works including Autour du drapeau, a group in bronze (1891); Vénus désarmant
 l’ Amour endormi, a group in plaster (1892); Phryne, a statue (in plaster 1893, marble 1894) which was later cast in bronze in several sizes; L’Epave, marble (1895); Phylis de la Tour du Pin, an equestrian statue in bronze (1901); Chouan, a bust in bronze (1905); and Miroir de Diane, a statuette in plaster (1906).

Pierre Campagne was listed among the living artists in the Société des Artistes français until 1938.

Signed: Campagne (Sculpteur)

Height: 34 inches (86 cm)

Condition: Good unrestored condition. Marble veins visible to front.

References:

Pierre Kjellberg: Bronzes of the 19th Century [Schiffer 1994] Bronze version illustrated on page 169