a Carrara marble figure, Fratelli Lapini, Florence, dated 1889, carved as a young woman leaning against a rock, her lace-edged chemise slipping off her shoulders and breast as she dips her toes into the cold lapping water, oval base titled to front and incised to rear 'Prop:^ta Frat^lli / Lapini / 1889 / Firenze', 85cm. high

Provenance: Hugh Amherst, 4th Earl Amherst (1856-1927) of Montreal Park near Sevenoaks, Kent; by whom sold at a contents auction of the house circa 1926 to the vendor's great uncle.

A native of Florence, Cesare Lapini became a highly successful sculptor in the later 19th century. He sold both his own and others works to an international clientele from his workshop/gallery in the city, the business usually designated Fratelli Lapini (or Signori Lapini, ‘Dizionario degli Artisti Italiani Viventi, Pittori, Scultori e Architetti’, edited by Angelo De Gubernatis, Florence, 1889, pp.256/580), the firm apparently continuing to trade after his death, then usually designated Galleria Lapini, into the early 20th century. His similar bathing figure 'La Sorpresa' is well known, since oft repeated in both marble and alabaster, unlike the present rare model.