Cleveland Museum of Art

Study for "Silence"

Louis-Philippe Mouchy

Date

c. 1780–89

Medium

terracotta

Culture

France, 18th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

When originally acquired this work was understood as a sketch for the "Citizen," a figure for a monument to King Louis XV in the French city of Rheims by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In that work the figure of the "Citizen" appears at the base, opposite an allegory of law, underneath a sculpture of Louis XV. The attribution was changed, however, after research made evident that the museum's sculpture precisely matches the iconography for "Silence." Moreover, the figure differs considerably from Pigalle's final figure of the "Citizen," throwing the attribution to Pigalle in question as well. The work is now believed to be by Pigalle's close follower, Mouchy, because of its similarity to a sculpture completed in 1789 for Madame Pompadour called Silence , which currently resides in the Luxembourg Palace in Paris.

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