Read the visual description
The sculpture shows the bust of a young child with curly hair, smooth skin, and a soft expression. The child wears a garment with a ruffled collar and two buttons going down the front. They look towards the left with wide, inquisitive eyes, and have a small dimple in their cheek next to their small mouth. The sculpture is made of white marble and sits on a dark, glossy round base.
National Gallery of Art · Sculpture
Alexandre Brongniart
Jean-Antoine Houdon
- Date
- 1777
- Medium
- marble
- Dimensions
- overall: 39.2 x 28.7 x 19 cm (15 7/16 x 11 5/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
- Classification
- Sculpture · Bust
- Accession number
- 1942.9.123
- Credit line
- Widener Collection
- Time span
- 1776 to 1800
- Department
- CSD
Subjects and terms
- French
- French Sculpture of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- boy
- portrait
- Neoclassic
- Brongniart, Alexandre
Provenance
By inheritance to the sitter's great-nephew, Baron Jérome Pichon; (his sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 29 March-10 April 1897, no. 1009); Joseph Bardac, Paris;[1] (Galerie Seligmann, Paris); sold 21 February 1911 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[2] gift 1942 to NGA. [1] According to German Seligman, _Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting_, New York, 1961: 13, it was Sigismond Bardac who sold the busts to his father, Jacques Seligmann. However, according to René Gimpel, _Diary of an Art Dealer_, New York, 1966: 7-8, it was Joseph Bardac, Sigismond's brother, who owned both the marbles of the Brongniart children and the terracottas; Gimpel sold the terracottas to Widener. [2] See notes of Charles Seymour, Jr., about busts by Houdon in the NGA collection, and the letter of 17 January 1911 from Joseph Bardac to Jacques Seligmann, in NGA curatorial files.
Inscription
on back on bottom edge: A. HOUDON, F. AN. 1777
NGA object ID 1262. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.