Sleeping nymph

Information

Trained in Rome after winning first prize in sculpture in 1780, Deseine belongs to the neoclassical trend of the transition between the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  Here he has borrowed the theme of sleep from the Sleeping hermaphrodite at the Louvre, transposed into a radiant feminine body.  The crumpled and geometrised sheets on the bed and the lace on the pillow combine with and emphasize in contrast the smooth and curving shapes of the feminine body.  Between idealisation and realism, this marble nymph is still undeniably a woman, deeply asleep, careless of her body, her head heavy and tipped back, breathing through her slightly parted lips.