Céleste Motte, Large Medallion By Simar In 1831

Profile portrait of Céleste Motte with her hair "à la girafe", wife of the painter Achille Devéria, signed Simar 1831. Proof in cast iron or Berlin iron in very good condition. Beautiful patina and beautiful period proof.
This very beautiful medallion is the presumed portrait of Céleste Motte (1812-1870), wife and muse of the romantic painter Achille Devéria (1800-1857), muse of the romantics. We know his portrait by the medallion of David D'Angers preserved in the Louvre and by several engravings (see photos).
Céleste has her hair done "à la girafe", a fashion that lasted a few years following the gift made by the Viceroy of Egypt to Charles X in 1827. The giraffe Named Zarafa arrived in Marseilles and crossed France in a few weeks, triggering a real girafomania. The women adopted a very high hairstyle in reference to the amazing proportions of the animal. When she landed in Paris on June 30, 1827, it was a veritable "girafomania" that took hold of elegant women and conversations. The "derivative products" with the effigy of the giraffe are everywhere, in all areas. Fashion is taking over the phenomenon: printed fabrics, accessories: fans, powder compacts, gloves, bags, brushes... And Parisian women wear "giraffe" hairstyles. Like Celeste.
The medallion is signed Simar. Is it the sculptor Pierre-Charles Simart (1806-1857) who in his youthful works abandoned the T of his surname? Because we have not found a sculptor named Simar (without T). Son of Antoine Simart, a carpenter in Troyes, and Catherine Loiseau, Pierre-Charles Simart showed a gift for drawing and sculpture very early on. After studying at the drawing school in Troyes, he was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Paris, where he was a pupil of Antoine Desboeufs, Charles Dupaty, Jean-Pierre Cortot and James Pradier. Simart won the first Grand Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1833 with a relief on the subject of The Elder and the Children. He was elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1852. Simart is best known for the ten high reliefs in the crypt of the tomb of Napoleon 1st at the Invalides as well as the large statue of the Emperor in coronation costume.
He dies accidentally following a fall from an omnibus. After the death of her husband, his wife entered orders under the name of Reverent Mother Saint-Pierre. Pierre-Charles Simart was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor on July 5, 1846, then promoted to Officer of the same Order on June 14, 1856.
The models and casts of most of his works, approximately sixty-four statues, busts, bas -reliefs or sketches in plaster, were donated by his widow to the current Saint-Loup museum in Troyes.