Mademoiselle Guimard, Terracotta Bust After Merchi

Terracotta Bust of Mademoiselle Guimard after Gaetano Merchi,
France, late 19th century.
Patinated terracotta cast.

Terracotta bust of Mademoiselle Guimard, one of the most celebrated and influential dancers of the 18th century. This is a cast made at the end of the 19th century after the model created a century earlier by the Italian-born sculptor Gaetano Merchi, whose portraits of elegant women were particularly prized in Parisian salons of the time. The piece faithfully reproduces the precise modeling of the face, the high hairstyle composed of artfully curled locks, and the flowing drape of the bodice—all characteristic elements of the delicate style adopted by Merchi in the 1770s and 1780s. The warm, even patina highlights the softness of the modeling and gives the piece a refined presence reminiscent of the grace of the original subject.
Mademoiselle Guimard, whose real name was Marie-Madeleine Guimard (1743–1816), was one of the leading figures of the Parisian stage during the reign of Louis XVI. Joining the Opéra in 1761, she quickly established herself as the very embodiment of graceful and expressive dance, in contrast to the more virtuosic and athletic style of her contemporaries. Her contemporaries particularly admired her ability to suggest emotions through the simple posture of her body, a style based on elegance and choreographic intelligence.
She was praised for her lightness, fluidity, and a presence that made her a favored muse for painters, engravers, and sculptors in Enlightenment Paris.
Her renown was not limited to the stage. A prominent socialite, she held one of the most brilliant artistic salons in the capital. She commissioned the construction of her own private mansion, the Hôtel Guimard, entrusted to the architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, one of the leading figures of Neoclassicism. This residence became an intellectual and artistic hub where writers, philosophers, aristocrats, and musicians mingled. Mademoiselle Guimard organized performances, concerts, and literary evenings there, further strengthening her influence on 18th-century cultural life. A self-proclaimed seductress and an independent woman in an era when such independence both fascinated and shocked, she was alternately adored, criticized, envied, and caricatured, all of which contributed to shaping her legend. Merchi, sensitive to the dancer's natural elegance and slender figure, created a model that has become iconic for the delicacy of its expression and the charm it exudes. Mademoiselle Guimard's sculpted portraits, of which this one faithfully reproduces, have become icons of 18th-century female portraiture, on par with the busts of her contemporary actresses and dancers.
At the end of the 19th century, during a period of great enthusiasm for the 18th-century style, Parisian workshops reissued Merchi's models as molded casts in terracotta, plaster, or bisque. These re-editions adorned bourgeois interiors, libraries, reception rooms, theaters, and performance halls. This bust fits perfectly within this tradition. Its condition is very satisfactory, with only very slight surface wear characteristic of its age and material. The finesse of the molding, the quality of the patina, and the perfect rendering of details make it a decorative work of great charm.