AFTER CHRISTOPHE GABRIEL ALLEGRAIN (FRENCH, 1710-1795): A LATE 19TH CENTURY FRENCH BRONZE FIGURE OF VENUS SORTANT AU BAIN CAST BY F. BARBEDIENNE her drapery falling from her waist, her left foot balanced on a rock, on a square base inscribed to the reverse 'G.C. ALLEGRAIN. FECIT. 1776' and with 'A COLLAS BREVETE REDUCTION MECHANIQUE' foundry stamp, the side inscribed 'F. BARBEDIENNE. FONDEUR.',  34cm high Allegrain was commissioned to carve the original marble version of this figure in 1755 by the Marquis de Marigny for the chateau de Choisy-Le-Roi (Val-de-Marne). He exhibited a plaster version at the salon of 1757, and the marble version was completed and exhibited in 1767. The comtesse Du Barry purchased the piece for the park of the Chateau de Louveciennes in 1772 where it remained until 1793 when Louis-Simon Boizot secured the figure for the nation. It is included in an inventory of the Louvre in 1824 and it remains there to this day.