Large Antique Late 19th Century Plaster Bust Jeune Fille à La Natte After Jacques Saly Faux Marble & Bronze

Description

Large Antique Plaster Bust Jeune Fille à la natte After Jacques Saly Faux Marble & Bronze

Jeune Fille à la … more Large Antique Plaster Bust Jeune Fille à la natte After Jacques Saly Faux Marble & Bronze

Jeune Fille à la natte ~ Young Girl with a Braid

This piece is absolutely exquisite! You would not know this is not bronze and marble until inspecting the bottom. The marble is very realistic and meticulously painted. Truly a work of art

Head and undraped shoulders of a little girl, looking downwards, with hair drawn back in three braids, knotted on the crown, with hair drawn up from the nape of the neck

16" tall 7.25" wide 6.25" deep

A plaster replica of an 18th century (1700's) plaster bust of a young female child (Jeune Fille à la natte) by Atelier Jacques-Francois-Joseph Saly.
The original marble bust is exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Jacques François Joseph Saly, also known as Jacques Saly (20 June 1717 – 4 May 1776), was a famous French-born sculptor who worked in France, Denmark, Italy and Malta. He began his training as a sculptor at nine years of age under local master Antoine Gilles in Valenciennes from 1726-1727. In spite of his parents' meager income, he was sent to Paris in 1732 to train in the studio of the leading sculptor at Paris, Guillaume Coustou. At the same time he attended the school of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, winning medals in 1734, 1737 and 1738. Winning that last medal, first place in the Prix de Rome competition, gave him the right to study at the French academy at Rome, at the time the single mainstream route to a successful official career as a sculptor in Paris.

"There has been some debate about the identity of the sitter. She has been thought in the past to be Alexandrine d'Etoilles (daughter of Madame de Pompadour) and - subsequently - the daughter of Jean-Francois de Troy, Director of the French Academy in Rome when Saly had studied there in the 1740s. Both theories have now been discounted, so her identity remains unknown."

Excellent Condition - No cracks, damage or repairs less