The present piece is Edouard Lantier's original model of a standing female figure, purchased on May 1896 for the National Art Training School. The acquisition of this piece accorded with Thomas Armstrong's advice on the benefits of providing schools of Art with casts of full- length figures. Armstrong was an artist who served as Director of Art in the Department of Science and Art from 1881 to 1898.

Lanteri (1848-1917), a sculptor and medallist, was a native of Burgundy, and initially trained under Aimé Millet (1819-1891) Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802-1897) at the 'Petite Ecole', and later at the École des Beaux-Arts under Eugène Guillaume (1822-1905) and Pierre-Jules Cavalier. Lanteri settled in England from 1872, and was naturalised in 1901. At the age of 23 he became chief assistant to Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm a position he held until Boehm's death in 1890. In 1880 Lanteri was appointed Master of Modelling at the National Art Training School (now Royal College of Art), and in 1900 became the first Professor of Modelling. During 1905/6 he supervised students working on the figures of Fame, Sculpture and Architecture for the Exhibition Road façade of the Museum. Lanteri wrote a three volume guide to modelling published in 1902, 1904 and 1911.