A FRENCH MARBLE FIGURE OF THE COMTESSE BACHASSON DE MONTALIVET

The sitter is Madamme La Comtesse de Montalivet, wife of the Comte Camille de Montalivet, who helped form the Versailles Museum, enlarge the Musée du Louvre and restore the Palais de Fontainebleau, in the 1840s. The sculptor, Paul Gayrard, won a First Class Medal in the Salon in 1846, and became much favoured by French high society, but he also had considerable talent for animal modeling.