Bronze sculpture with brown patina signed « Houdon" on the bottom - Marble base - 19th century cast. Houdon made several copies of this Frileuse in bronze, including our piece where he took off the clothes from her breast and sex as she is not covered more than with her arms and hands. The broken urn is missing but the effect of flesh is more attractive here. The original 1783 marble woman shivering, slightly hunched, wrapped in a veil that hides her face, but hides not much of her anatomy. This sensual posture though partly covered made a scandal and the statue was refused at the Salon of 1783, despite the hypocritical proposal to place it in a corner of the room. The winter allegory is reminiscent of the old mourners or the Pietà and the broken urn on the ground has often been a symbol of lost virginity.