Portrait of Étienne Maurice Falconet (1716–1791)
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger French
Sitter Etienne-Maurice Falconet French
Not on view
A testament to friendship and artistic lineage, this portrait of Falconet, who would become one of the great French sculptors of the Rococo, was made by his teacher and another of the period's most important sculptors, Lemoyne. From a Latin inscription in Falconet's hand, we know that it was drawn in 1741, when Falconet was twenty-five and had spent almost a decade in the older artist's studio. Falconet was, by all accounts, a mischievous man with a sharp sense of humor. Lemoyne conveys this quality with the sidelong glance and hint of amusement. As in his best sculptures, Lemoyne captured a fleeting expression, leaving us with the sense we are gazing upon a living, breathing person, whose personality plays across his features.
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