The Bather

Richard Edwin Brooks

1896, cast 1904 · Bronze · The American Wing

While he was in Paris, Brooks modeled and cast this statuette of a young boy atop a rock bracing himself to gauge the temperature of the water below. The subject is presented in an animated moment, and, in keeping with the artist’s Beaux-Arts training, with a composition of textural contrast among water, rock, and flesh. At the Paris Salon of 1896, Brooks exhibited a plaster statue titled “Ah! C'est froid,” probably the model for a proposed lifesize bronze.

Artist

Richard Edwin Brooks

Date

1896, cast 1904

Medium

Bronze

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1911