Pierre Soyer, 1892

Art Historical Context

This delicate silvered bronze medal, created by French artist Louis-Oscar Roty in 1892, captures a profile portrait of a young boy named Pierre Soyer. Measuring just over an inch across, the piece exemplifies the intimate scale typical of medals and plaquettes, which were designed as portable works of art rather than large public monuments. The profile view emphasizes the boy's features with crisp, elegant lines, reflecting the careful craftsmanship involved in struck medals. Roty, working during a period of renewed interest in medal-making as a fine art form in late nineteenth-century France...

About the Artist

Louis-Oscar Roty · 1846–1911

Louis-Oscar Roty, commonly known as Oscar Roty (1846–1911), was born on June 11 in Paris's Belleville neighborhood, the son of a modest schoolmaster. He began his artistic training under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran at the Petite École (later the École des Arts Décoratifs), honing his drawing skills, before entering the École des Beaux-Arts in 1864. There, he studied sculpture and medal engraving u...