Lot Essay
This austerely Neoclassical self-portrait by Roland is implicitly redolent of his revolutionary beliefs. From a humble background, this talented but not yet universally well-known sculptor studied under Pajou (of whom he modelled in terracotta a portrait bust, Louvre), assisting him on the decoration of the Opera Hall at Versailles and in the Palais Royal, Paris. After a five year sojourn in Italy to complete his education, Roland returned in 1779 to be made an associate member of the Acadmie Royal. In the last decade of the reign of Louis XVI he produced some of his most significant official sculpture.
It has been written perceptively of the bust now being offered:
"His marble Self-portrait shows him lean and alert and attaining an authoritative level in this field." (Draper, op.cit.).
"Among Roland's most accomplished achievements is his portraiture, which unlike his rather grandiloquent state commissions, impresses by its elegant simplicity and directness. This bust is one of a group of family portraits that includes likenesses of Roland's wife, his daughter Augustine-Louise-Thrse (1784-1856), and his mother-in-law." (Baillio, op.cit.)
The present bust was inherited by his daughter and descended from her to Henri Marcel by 1900. The noble features of the self-portrait belie the sculptor's origins and rank him with the other politically more important figures of the French Revolution, who espoused and revived the style of the Greek and Roman republics to indicate and emphasize their stern beliefs, that eschewed the frivolity of the Ancien Rgime, typified by the Rococo style. Roland accorded a similarly direct, though a trifle less severe, treatment to the bust of his twenty-two year old daughter, carved in 1805-6, which was acquired by the Louvre in the 1980s.
It has been written perceptively of the bust now being offered:
"His marble Self-portrait shows him lean and alert and attaining an authoritative level in this field." (Draper, op.cit.).
"Among Roland's most accomplished achievements is his portraiture, which unlike his rather grandiloquent state commissions, impresses by its elegant simplicity and directness. This bust is one of a group of family portraits that includes likenesses of Roland's wife, his daughter Augustine-Louise-Thrse (1784-1856), and his mother-in-law." (Baillio, op.cit.)
The present bust was inherited by his daughter and descended from her to Henri Marcel by 1900. The noble features of the self-portrait belie the sculptor's origins and rank him with the other politically more important figures of the French Revolution, who espoused and revived the style of the Greek and Roman republics to indicate and emphasize their stern beliefs, that eschewed the frivolity of the Ancien Rgime, typified by the Rococo style. Roland accorded a similarly direct, though a trifle less severe, treatment to the bust of his twenty-two year old daughter, carved in 1805-6, which was acquired by the Louvre in the 1980s.