Bartolini first created A Nymph Stung by a Scorpion in 1833-44 to a commission from Prince Charles de Beauveau. The year after it was completed, the statue was displayed with the sculptor's permission at the Paris Salon where it was very well received. Among those who admired it was Charles Baudelaire. Today that original is in the Louvre in Paris. In December 1845, Nicholas I, who was then in Florence, visited Bartolini's studio and commissioned a marble copy of the sculpture. The statue remained unfinished, however, when the sculptor died and the work of completing it was entrusted to the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Dupré (1817-1882). A Nymph Stung by a Scorpion is one Bartolini's finest works. Striving to move away from the imitation of ancient works, he sought inspiration in life itself, masterfully conveying the naturalness of movement and the slight grimace of pain on the face of the girl.