WORKSHOP OF LORENZO BARTOLINI (1777-1850), CIRCA 1820-1830

Lorenzo Bartolini was born outside Florence and was apprenticed at a marble works until 1797 when he moved to Paris where he became friends with Ingres. He was sent to Carrara in 1808 by Napoleon to establish a school for sculptors and after the abdication of Napoleon he returned to Florence where he was made a professor at the Academy.

This plaster bust may be compared with numerous busts executed by Bartolini in the 1820s and 1830s, such as the bust of Princess Sofia Scherbatof (Tinti, op. cit., no. XLVI, pl. XXXI). On the basis of facial similarities, the present bust may represent a second portrait of Lady Frederica Murray, daughter of The 3rd Earl of Mansfield, who was known to have sat for Bartolini, in around 1819.