It was on a trip to Venice in 1954 when the British sculptor Michael Ayrton (1921-75) observed a group of boys and young men bathing from a jetty on Giudecca, an island in the Venetian Lagoon. A series of studies inspired by what he saw followed and led to sculptures such as the bronze shown here.
Bather and Child, conceived in 1956, was made in an edition of nine. This example, erected on a wooden base and measuring 16in (40cm) high, was bought from the Bruton Gallery in Somerset in 1981. It is estimated at £3000-5000 in a sale of Modern British and Post War Art at Mallams in Oxford on May 23-24.