Detail of the Bust of Madame de Pompadour by Pigalle in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2022

Title: Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764)

Artist: Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (French, 1714–1785)

Date: 1748–51

Culture: French, Paris

Medium: White marble (Sost, the French Pyrenees)

Dimensions: Overall (confirmed): 29 7/8 × 18 5/8 × 11 3/8 in. (75.9 × 47.3 × 28.9 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: The Jules Bache Collection, 1949

Accession Number: 49.7.70


The portrait was completed in 1751 when Madame de Pompadour was thirty years old. It was probably meant for her residence château de Bellevue, which was finished the same year. She chose the stone for the bust, a hard and brittle marble, with the intention of promoting the use of local French materials. This piece was the first to be made of the white marble from the newly discovered quarry of Sost in the French Pyrenees.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/200564