Marie-Anne Collot
As a young woman, French sculptor Marie-Anne Collot (1748-1821) moved to Saint Petersburg, Russia, as sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet’s student, assistant, and possibly more. Falconet had just gotten the biggest break of his career when Russian Empress Catherine the Great hired him to sculpt a massive public monument to her predecessor, Peter the Great.
She may have come as an assistant, but Collot wasn’t destined to be stuck in that role for long. The art-loving empress quickly recognized that the young Collot was a great talent. She began to commission Collot to sculpt portrait busts depicting members of the Russian royal court. These commissions were successful, and with Catherine the Great’s backing, Collot’s career took off. Until Collot married Falconet’s son, quit sculpting, and moved back to France in the late 1770s, she never lacked for commissions. She portrayed Russian nobles, important Frenchmen, and Catherine the Great herself.
She was also responsible for an important aspect of the very monument that Falconet came to Russia to create—the head. It seems that Falconet couldn’t get the Tsar’s face just right, so he delegated this critical task to Collot, who was more skilled in portraiture. The finished sculpture, called The Bronze Horseman, includes the head by Collot on Falconet’s body and horse. It stands in Saint Petersburg’s Senate Square.
- Alexandra Kiely
P.S. Catherine the Great was an extremely powerful and elegant woman. Check here our funny Rococo women beauty guide. <3 You can also meet Catherine among the five great female art patrons in history here!