Getty Museum
Bust of Mary Robinson
Creator
Pierre-Jean David d'AngersFrench Artist · 1788–1856
All works by this person →At age twenty, with eleven francs in his pocket, Pierre-Jean David d'Angers arrived in Paris and began working in Philippe-Laurent Roland's studio. Later, as a winner of the Prix de Rome, he studied antiquities in Italy, where he met Antonio Canova and absorbed current trends in Neoclassical art. Yet, regarding sculpture as "the recorder of posterity," he often tempered the classicizing elements i
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1824
- Medium
- Marble
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Sculpture
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- be7e76e0-2fcc-4bae-bde8-9f6273fe897e
This austere bust of a young American woman by a French sculptor has an enigmatic air. The lack of accessories, the geometric simplicity of the shapes, and the classicizing square form of the bust give the work an otherworldly effect. To augment this effect, the artist carved the face with smooth planes, left the pupils blank and unincised, and fashioned the large loops of hair on the top of her head in simple, clear shapes to bring out the figure's abstract qualities. The figure's remote classicism is leavened by the naturalism of details such as her bumpy nose. Pierre-Jean David d'Angers captured the awkwardness of adolescence in his sitter, representing Mary Robinson as a shy teenager with her head demurely tilted forward and down, casting a deep shadow below her brows. Mary Robinson was the daughter of a merchant and sea captain with a route between New York and Le Havre, France. She probably sat for the sculptor on a family visit to France.
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