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Jeune fille de Mégare

Jeune fille de Mégare is a marble statue made in 1870 by the French sculptor Louis-Ernest Barrias. It depicts a young girl from the Greek city of Megara seated cross-legged, with bare breasts, holding a spindle in one hand and a distaff in the other. Purchased at the Salon in the year it was created, the sculpture is now conserved at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Jeune fille de Mégare, a white marble statue of a seated young woman spinning with a spindle and distaff.
Jeune fille de Mégare by Louis-Ernest Barrias, shown as a seated marble figure spinning in a museum setting.
July 2023 © · CC BY-SA 3.0
Jeune fille de Mégare, a white marble sculpture of a seated young woman holding a spindle and distaff
Jeune fille de Mégare by Louis-Ernest Barrias, shown as a seated marble figure in a museum hall.
July 2023 © · CC BY-SA 3.0
Jeune fille de Mégare, a seated marble female statue holding a spindle and a conical object
Jeune fille de Mégare by Louis-Ernest Barrias, shown as a seated marble figure in a museum setting.
July 2023 © · CC BY-SA 3.0
Jeune fille de Mégare, a white marble statue of a seated draped woman holding an object aloft in her raised hand.
Jeune fille de Mégare by Ernest Barrias, shown as a white marble statue in the Musée d\'Orsay.
June 2023 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
Jeune fille de Mégare marble sculpture of a seated woman spinning, with two other statues beside her.
Jeune fille de Mégare by Louis-Ernest Barrias, shown here as a stereoscopic photograph of the sculpture in museum display.
1904 © Rijksmuseum · CC0

Identification

TitleJeune fille de Mégare
Alternative titlesLa Ragazza di Megara; Fileuse de Mégare
Typestatue

Creator

ArtistLouis-Ernest Barrias
Artist nationalityFrench

Historical context

Date1867–1870
Place of creationRome

Materials

Materialmarble
Other version materialplaster
Production sequenceFirst made in plaster, then in marble

Iconography and meaning

SubjectAn ancient Greek spinner, a young woman from Megara
Objects heldTwo spindles, one in each hand

Appearance

Arm positionOne arm raised while the other rests on her right knee
EyesSlightly half-closed
Base decorationGeometric decorations
FigureBare-breasted young woman
PoseSitting cross-legged on a base

Discovery and provenance

ExhibitionExhibited at the Paris Salon in 1870
AcquisitionBought by the French state for 6,000 francs
Destination of versionsBoth versions were sent to France

Location and ownership

Current locationMusée d'Orsay, Paris

History and restoration

ProvenanceEntered the Musée du Luxembourg in 1872; transferred to the Louvre in 1923; transferred to the Musée d'Orsay in 1986

Other

Later related sculptureSpinner of Bou-Saada
Influence on later workThe spinner figure was said to have been reused by the artist in Spinner of Bou-Saada
Later related sculpture figureIn the later work, the girl is a Middle Eastern woman wearing a long dress
Later related sculpture locationIt adorns the tomb of the Orientalist painter Gustave-Achille Guillaumet

Significance

Critical receptionA period magazine said viewers would focus more on the upper body than on the crossed legs, and compared the statue to people without lower limbs