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Title:
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Portrait of a Woman
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Artist: |
Baron Carlo Marochetti
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This signed statuette is a rare instance of Marochetti contributing to what became a popular genre from the mid-1830s, of small scale portraits of celebrity figures, often from the theatrical and musical worlds, either in fashionable contemporary dress, or in stage costume. A plaster version of this model was sold by Daniel Katz Ltd. to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick (Maine) in 2010. That version, which is not signed, still bears the ridges left by the many sections of the mould, indicating the immense intricacy of the sand casting, and reminding one of the chiselling and burnishing that went into the production of this kind of bronze. It is likely that the subject of this portrait was the German soprano, Henriette Sontag (1806-1854), who, after achieving international renown as a singer, in 1828 married in secret Count Carlo Rossi, Sardinian ambassador to the Hague. The marriage came into the open in 1830, when the King of Prussia conferred on her the title of Countess Rossi. This, however, meant that she had to confine her performances to private recitals. She returned to the stage in 1849, after political upheavals brought an end to her husband's diplomatic career. A comparison can be made with the portrait of Henriette Sontag by Paul Delaroche, in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. No documentation has so far been found to confirm this identification, which is based solely on the resemblance to the Delaroche and other portraits of Sontag, and on the probability that her connection with the Sardinian court, would very likely have brought her into contact with Marochetti.l
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Signature: |
signed |
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Material(s): |
Bronze
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Medium: |
Unassigned |
Finish: |
- |
Technique: |
Cast |
Genre: |
Portrait Statuette (seated)
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Location: |
Private Collection, London, , ,
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Colours: |
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Year: |
0 |
Height: |
0 metres |
Width: |
0 metres |
Depth: |
0 metres |
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Key: |
2082 |
Acc. No.: |
2082 |
Col. No.: |
2082 |
Number of views: |
2484 |
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