2-742-350 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Study for "Silence" , c. 1780-89. When originally acquired this work was understood as a sketch for "The Citizen"-a figure for a monument to King Louis XV in the French city of Rheims by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. In that work the figure of "The Citizen" appears at the base, opposite an allegory of law, underneath a sculpture of Louis XV. The attribution was changed, however, after research made evident that the museum's sculpture precisely matches the iconography for "Silence"; moreover the figure differs considerably from Pigalle's final figure of "the Citizen," throwing the attribution to Pigalle in question as well. The work is now believed to be by Pigalle's close follower, Mouchy, because of its similarity to a sculpture completed in 1789 for Madame Pompadour called "Silence," which currently resides in the Luxembourg Palace in Paris. --David Silvernail (February 2012)