Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne
French, 1704 - 1778Henri-Claude, Comte D’Harcourt, 1760
Not on view
Terracotta
Dimensions22 1/4 × 15 1/4 × 12 in. (56.5 × 38.7 × 30.5 cm)
Gift of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York, 2014.20
The carefully detailed features animate the personality of the subject, Monsieur Henri-Claude Comte d’Harcourt (1704–1769), First Duke of Harcourt, Marshal of France, and member of one of the oldest families in France. He wears a Maltese cross interspersed with the French fleur-de-lis, which could signify that he was a member of a French chivalric order. Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne was considered the most prolific sculptor of the eighteenth century and was the preferred sculptor of King Louis XV (r. 1715–1774). His many depictions of the king were seen in public sculptures and portrait busts, much of which was destroyed during the French Revolution.
