Read the visual description
The sculpture depicts the bust of a young child with fine details of the facial features, a gentle expression, curly hair, and dressed in a garment with a ruffled collar and buttons. The sculpture is crafted from a material with a warm, terracotta-like earthy tone and is mounted on a round wooden pedestal. The child is presented in a naturalistic manner, looking across time at the viewer with a serene expression.
National Gallery of Art · Sculpture
Alexandre Brongniart
Imitator of Jean-Antoine Houdon
- Date
- c. 1910
- Medium
- terracotta
- Dimensions
- overall: 37.7 x 27.3 x 18 cm (14 13/16 x 10 3/4 x 7 1/16 in.)
- Classification
- Sculpture · Bust
- Accession number
- 1942.9.125
- Credit line
- Widener Collection
- Time span
- 1901 to 1925
- Department
- CSD
Subjects and terms
- French
- French Sculpture of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- boy
- portrait
- Neoclassic
- Brongniart, Alexandre
Provenance
Joseph Bardac, Paris; (E. Gimpel & Wildenstein, Paris and New York);[1] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, after purchase 21 February 1917 by funds of Joseph E. Widener; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] According to René Gimpel, _Diary of an Art Dealer_, New York, 1966: 7-8, Joseph Bardac, Sigismond Bardac's brother, owned both the Houdon marbles of the Brongniart children (NGA 1942.9.123 and .124) and the terracottas by an imitator of the master. (Seligmann sold the marbles to Widener.) This bust, and its companion, NGA 1942.9.126, were possibly earlier in the possession of Ed. Brongniart, a cousin of Baron Jérome Pichon, the first recorded owner of the marble busts. See information in the Widener card file and catalogue notes, and the notes of both Edith Standen, the Widener collection curator, and Charles Seymour, Jr., about busts by Houdon in the NGA collection, all in NGA curatorial files.
Inscription
falsely signed and dated, on back on bottom edge: A. Houson, F. AN. 1777
NGA object ID 1264. 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.