Marin made this sculpture while a student at the French Academy in Rome and presented it at the Salon of 1808. The artist, a pupil of Clodion, managed to synthesise the rigorous study of classical models and the sensuality of life studies. This graceful female figure charmed Denon, then director of the Musés Nepoléon (now the Louvre), who saw Marin as one of the most promising sculptors of his generation.