Details

Title

Portrait of Antoine-René de Voyer de Paulmy d’Argenson

Artist/Maker

Jean-Baptiste Defernex

Date

ca. 1765

Medium

Terracotta on wooden base decorated with gilded bronze

Dimensions

16 15/16 x 9 1/16 x 6 5/16 inches

Credit

Purchase with European Art Acquisition Fund, purchase with funds from Irene and Howard Stein, through prior acquisitions from the Friends of Art and Colonel Clifford C. Early, High Museum of Art Enhancement Fund, and funds from the Phoenix Society

Accession #

2007.126

Location

On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 208

The subject of this small sculpture is Marc Antoine-René de Voyer, the Marquis de Paulmy and third Marquis d’Argenson. A diplomat, statesman, and French Minister of War, De Voyer was also an art collector and bibliophile. His library included some 100,000 carefully selected volumes, largely by French writers, especially poets. The documents he wrote cataloguing his library reveal his expertise and taste. This small terra-cotta is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Defernex, who worked as a modeler for the Sèvres porcelain factory during this period.