Portrait Bust (c. 1865): Art, History and Details

Portrait Bust (c. 1865) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824–1887).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Among the artists who reacted against the static poses of neoclassical art, Carrier-Belleuse drew inspiration from the opulence and excess of Rococo portraiture of the 1700s. This bust resembles one of Napoleon III's mistresses, Marguerite Bellanger, whose features the artist is known to have borrowed for his female busts. Carrier-Belleuse received commissions from Napoleon III, ruler of France from 1852 to 1870, and contributed to the sculptural decorations of the Louvre and Opera Garnier in Paris.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait Bust
• Date: c. 1865
• Creator attribution: Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824–1887)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: terracotta
• Dimensions: with base: 77.4 x 38.1 x 28.6 cm (30 1/2 x 15 x 11 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1993.38

A detail from the museum

The possible muse for this bust, Virginia Oldonia, was a countess know for her drama and costumes.

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "1993 Annual Report." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 81, no. 6 (1994): 143-218.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.