Marie-Anne Collot (1748 – 24 February 1821) was a French sculptor. She was the student and daughter-in-law of Étienne Falconet and is most well known as a portraitist, close to the philosophic and artistic circles of

Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during t ...

and

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

Falconet's student

Marie-Anne Collot was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and started to work as a model at the age of 15 in the workshop of Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne. He had a determining influence on her career as a portraitist. She then entered Etienne Falconet's workshop, who was a close friend of Diderot. She became Falconet's pupil and faithful friend. Her younger brother became an apprentice at the publisher's

André le Breton André François le Breton (2 September 1708 – 5 October 1779) was a French publisher. He was one of the four publishers of the ''Encyclopédie'' of Diderot and d'Alembert, along with Michel-Antoine David, Laurent Durand, and Antoine-Claude ...

, who was one of the four publishers of Diderot and

D'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanics, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''E ...

Encyclopédie , better known as ''Encyclopédie'' (), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It had many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis ...

Early sculptures

Her first works consisted of terracotta busts of Falconet's friends including Diderot, the actor Préville in the role of Sganarelle in “Le médecin malgré lui” by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

, and Prince Dimitri Alexeievich Galitzine, Russian ambassador. Many other works are now lost. From then on everyone recognised her talent, sincerity and lively spirit.

The Russian years 1766-1778 and Peter the Great's head

In October 1766 Marie-Anne Collot accompanied her mentor, Etienne-Maurice Falconet, to

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

, when he was invited by Catherine the Great with a view to creating an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a ...

of Peter the Great called “The

Bronze Horseman The ''Bronze Horseman'' (, literally "copper horseman") is an equestrian statue of Peter I of Russia, Peter the Great in the Senate Square (Saint Petersburg), Senate Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was opened to the public on 7 (18) Augu ...

”. During this time she sculpted the portraits of members of the Russian Court. They marvelled at the talent of this young woman sculptor, they could remember none other, and she was only 18 years old. Marie-Anne also created the plaster model that was selected for the

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

's head for the statue, after Catherine had rejected three attempts by Falconet. In December of the same year she presented her work to the Imperial Academy of Arts, of which she was elected a member on 20 January 1767. She received a comfortable pension, which to her represented a fortune.

Marble busts

Collot sculpted a bust representing Falconet at Catherine the Great's request. This is now in the Museum of Fine Art in Nancy, France. She also requested a bust of Diderot in 1772. When Falconet saw its quality it is said that he destroyed the one he had made himself of Diderot. The bust is in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. Then followed busts of Henry IV of France, Sully, Voltaire, and possibly one of D'Alembert (now lost?). Also several of the Empress herself, the Grand Duke Paul I and his wife the Grand Duchess Natalia, as well as marble medallions of historical characters and people associated with the Russian court; Peter the Great, the Empress Elizabeth, and Lady Cathcart, the wife of

Lord Cathcart Earl Cathcart is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. History The title was created in 1814 for the soldier and diplomat William Cathcart, 1st Viscount Cathcart. The Cathcart family descends from Sir Alan Cathcart, who sometime bet ...

, British Ambassador to Russia. She also made a superb bust of their daughter Mary. It was said that there started to be a shortage of marble in St. Petersburg.

Marriage and the return to France

In 1777 Marie-Anne Collot married the painter Pierre-Etienne Falconet in St. Petersburg. He was the son of Etienne Falconet. She moved to England with him where he studied with Joshua Reynolds. In England, she continued her passion with sculpting more busts, including one of Lady Cathcart. A daughter was born of the union a year later. The marriage was however unhappy and short-lived. Madame Falconet returned to France in 1778 with her baby.

The stay in Holland

In 1782 Collot went to Holland at the invitation of her friend, Princess Galitzine. While there, she sculpted the marble busts of William, Prince of Orange, and of his wife, Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia.

An early retirement

Collot gave up sculpting completely, concentrating from then on her daughter's education and helping her father-in-law who had fallen gravely ill. She continued to do so until his death in 1791. The French Revolution completely upset the world of artists, writers and philosophers. With her master, her husband and her friends having died, in 1791 Madame Falconet bought a country estate at Marimont, near the village of Bourdonnay in Moselle, France. She retired to there and led a peaceful life. She died in Nancy, and is buried at Bourdonnay.

Works of art

*In the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg **Bust of Falconet **Bust of Diderot **Bust of Voltaire **Bust of Henry IV **Bust of Sully *(location to be specified) **Bust of Catherine the Great (probably in the Hermitage Museum) **Bust of Peter the Great and several busts of Catherine the Great *In the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg **Portrait of Peter the Great **Medallion of the Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov *In the Marble Palace, St. Petersburg **Bust of the Grand Duke Paul **Bust of the Grand Duchess Natalia *In the State Museum at Tsarskoye Selo, south of St. Petersburg **Bust of a young Russian girl *In the Louvre Museum, Paris **Portrait assumed to be of Peter the Great **Portrait assumed to be of

Étienne Noël Damilaville Étienne Noël Damilaville (21 November 1723 – 13 December 1768) was an 18th-century French man of letters, friend of Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert. He served in various military and administrative functions of the Ancien Régime. He was a m ...

**Portrait assumed to be of Mary Cathcart, the daughter of the British ambassador to Russia *In the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, France **Portrait of Etienne-Maurice Falconet **Portrait of his son Pierre-Etienne Falconet *In private collections **Portrait of Melchior Grimm(ex-collection David Weill, Neuilly)
No photo available. **Portrait of Dimitri Alexeïevitch Galitzine **Marble medallion of Lady Cathcart File:Колло - Портрет великой княгини Натальи Алексеевны.jpg, Grand Duchess Natalia Alexeievna File:Collot-Falconet, Mary Cathcart (cropped).jpg,

Mary Cathcart Mary R. Cathcart (born August 28, 1942) is an American politician from Maine. Cathcart served as a Democratic State Senator from Maine's 32nd District, representing part of Penobscot County, including the population centers of Orono and Linco ...

File:Falconet-par-Collot.JPG,

Étienne Maurice Falconet Étienne Maurice Falconet (1 December 1716 – 24 January 1791) was a French baroque, rococo and Neoclassical sculpture, neoclassical sculptor, best-known for his equestrian statue of Peter the Great, the ''Bronze Horseman'' (1782), in St. Pet ...

File:Pierre-Etienne-Falconet-par-Marie-Anne-Collot.JPG, Pierre-Etienne Falconet File:D.A. Golitsyn by M. Collot 02.jpg, Demetrius Alekseyevich Gallitzin

References

Sources, bibliography (in French)

*Christiane Dellac, ''Marie-Anne Collot: Une sculptrice française à la cour de Catherine II, 1748-1821'', L'Harmattan, (2005) (). This book includes a bibliography and a list of works of art, as well as a portrait of the artist on the cover, *Charles Cournault, ''Marie-Anne Collot'' (1869) *Charles Cournault, ''Catalogue du Musée de la ville de Nancy'' *

Louis Réau Louis Réau (1 January 1881, Poitiers - 10 June 1961, Paris) was a French art historian. His major contribution involved exploring French art's international influence. His magnum opus, ''Iconographie de l'Art Chrétien'', in six volumes, encompas ...

, ''Etienne-Maurice Falconet 1716-1791'', Paris, Delmotte, 1922, t.II, chap. IV (L'Oeuvre de Marie-Anne Collot), p. 429-448 *M.L. Becker, ''Marie-Anne Collot, L'art de la terre-cuite au féminin'', L'Objet d'Art, n° 325, juin 1998. A convincing clarification of the portraits called “of Grimm and Damilaville”, and a portrait of Collot painted by her husband Pierre-Etienne, *M.L. Becker, ''Marie Collot à Pétersbourg'', La culture française et les archives russes, Centre International d'études du XVIIIe siècle, Ferney-Voltaire, 2004. In the appendix a provisional catalogue of the works of art, mentioning those whose location is unknown, Numerous photos, *M.L. Becker, ''Le buste de Diderot, de Collot à Houdon'', L'Objet d'Art, n° 412, avril 2006
Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

External links

Marie-Anne Collot, in Artcyclopedia
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Collot, Marie Anne 1748 births 1821 deaths French portrait artists 18th-century French sculptors 18th-century French women sculptors 19th-century French sculptors 19th-century French women sculptors