Marie Anne Collot

Falconet's student

Marie-Anne Collot was born in Paris and started to work as a model at the age of 15 in the workshop of Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne. He had a determining influence on her career as a portraitist. She then entered Etienne Falconet's workshop, who was a close friend of Diderot. She became Falconet's pupil and faithful friend. Her younger brother became an apprentice at the publisher's André Le Breton, who was one of the four publishers of Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopédie.

Early sculptures

Her first works consisted of terracotta busts of Falconet's friends including Diderot, the actor Préville in the role of Sganarelle in “Le médecin malgré lui” by Molière, and Prince Dimitri Alexeievich Galitzine, Russian ambassador. Many other works are now lost.

From then on everyone recognised her talent, sincerity and lively spirit.

The Russian years 1766-1778

In October 1766 Marie-Anne Collot accompanied Falconet to St. Petersburg, when he was invited by Catherine the Great with a view to creating an equestrian statue of Peter the Great.

She sculpted the portraits of members of the Russian Court. They marvelled at the talent of this young woman sculptor, they could remember none other, and she was only 18 years old.

In December of the same year she presented her work to the Imperial Academy of Arts, of which she was elected a member on 20 January 1767.

She received a comfortable pension, which to her represented a fortune.

Marble busts

Collot sculpted a bust representing Falconet at Catherine the Great's request. This is now in the Museum of Fine Art in Nancy, France. She also requested a bust of Diderot in 1772. When Falconet saw its quality it is said that he destroyed the one he had made himself of Diderot. The bust is in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Then followed busts of Henry IV of France, Sully, Voltaire, and possibly one of D'Alembert (now lost?). Also several of the Empress herself, the Grand Duke Paul I and his wife the Grand Duchess Natalia, as well as marble medallions of historical characters and people associated with the Russian court; Peter the Great, the Empress Elizabeth, and Lady Cathcart, the wife of Lord Cathcart, British Ambassador to Russia. She also made a superb bust of their daughter Mary. It was said that there started to be a shortage of marble in St. Petersburg.

Peter the Great's head

Falconet left it to his protégée, so gifted for sculpting portraits, the difficult task of making the head of Peter the Great for the equestrian statue called “The Bronze Horseman” in St. Petersburg. He studied how to make it and submitted a project which satisfied everybody.

Marriage and the return to France

In 1777 Marie-Anne Collot married the painter Pierre-Etienne Falconet in St. Petersburg. He was the son of Etienne Falconet. A daughter was born of the union a year later. The marriage was however unhappy and short-lived. Madame Falconet returned to France in 1778 with her baby.

The stay in Holland

In 1782 Collot went to Holland at the invitation of her friend, Princess Galitzine. While there, she sculpted the marble busts of William, Prince of Orange, and of his wife, Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia.

An early retirement

Collot gave up sculpting completely, concentrating from then on her daughter's education and helping her father-in-law who had fallen gravely ill. She continued to do so until his death in 1791.

The French Revolution completely upset the world of artists, writers and philosophers. With her master, her husband and her friends having died, in 1791 Madame Falconet bought a country estate at Marimont, near the village of Bourdonnay in Moselle, France. She retired to there and led a peaceful life. She died in Nancy, and is buried at Bourdonnay.

Works of art