Madame de Wailly, née Adélaïde-Flore Belleville (1765–1838)
1789
Medium
Bust: marble; base: grey marble
Dimensions
Overall, without base (confirmed): H. 24 5/8 x W. 19 7/8 x D. 10 3/4 in. (62.5 x 50.5 x 27.3 cm); Height with base: 30 1/8 in. (76.5 cm)
Classification
Sculpture
Culture
French, Paris
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Fletcher Fund, 1956
Accession Number
56.105
Tags
Art Historical Context
Augustin Pajou's marble bust of *Madame de Wailly, née Adélaïde-Floreille* (1765–1838), created in 1789, captures refined elegance of pre-Revolutionary French aristocracy. This lifesize portrait, measuring 24⅝ inches in height without its grey marble base, depicts the sitter with poised grace, her neoclassical features idealized yet lifelike. Pajou, a leading Parisian sculptor and official artist to Louis XVI, excelled in such busts, blending rococo softness with emerging neoclassical precision. Commissioned on the eve of the French Revolution, the sculpture reflects the opulent world of 18th...
About the Artist
Augustin Pajou · 1730–1809
Augustin Pajou (1730–1809) was one of the foremost French sculptors of the second half of the eighteenth century, whose long and distinguished career bridged the Rococo grace of the Ancien Régime and the more sober classicizing spirit that emerged in the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Born in Paris into a family with artistic connections — his father was an ornamental sculptor — Pajou showe...