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Lot Essay
Adélaide-Flore Belleville was the wife of the architecte du Roi Charles de Wailly (1730-1798), one of Pajou's closest friends. They had known each other since their tours to Rome. De Wailly built two neighboring houses on land he owned, one for each family, on the Rue de Penthièvre in Paris.
This bust is the pair to the bust of Charles de Wailly executed by the Pajou atelier in 1789. The original marble bust of Madame de Wailly, also dated 1789, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For a discussion of the plaster and terracotta versions, see Augustin Pajou, Royal Sculptor: 1730-1809, New York and Paris, 20 October 1997 - 19 January 1998 and 26 February - 24 May 1998, pp. 267-268, fig. 714.
This bust is the pair to the bust of Charles de Wailly executed by the Pajou atelier in 1789. The original marble bust of Madame de Wailly, also dated 1789, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For a discussion of the plaster and terracotta versions, see Augustin Pajou, Royal Sculptor: 1730-1809, New York and Paris, 20 October 1997 - 19 January 1998 and 26 February - 24 May 1998, pp. 267-268, fig. 714.