Étienne Maurice Falconet (1716-1791)

This rare portrait was executed by the notable French sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet, who created the renowned statue of Peter the Great, commissioned by Catherine the Great. The sculpture is more widely known as the Bronze Horseman thanks to Pushkin's poem of the same name. Falconet only executed a small number of drawings, and the very few we are aware of are those listed in the exhibition catalogue for the sale of his collection in 1866 alongside those in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, as stated in L. Réau, Étienne Maurice Falconet, Paris, 1922.