Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
58.S.32 |
Object Name |
Sculpture |
Title |
Head of Baron Georges Cuvier |
Artist |
David d'Angers, Pierre-Jean |
Date |
1833 |
Description |
Plaster head, two to three times life-sized. Subject faces forward. He has short hair with large waves, downward angled eyebrows and a small mouth. Cast in left of neck: "a la memoire de/ Georges Cuvier/ P. J. David d'Ange/ 1833." Tag in front of chest: "Baron Georges Cuvier: 1769-1832." |
Label |
The energy and universal interests of Georges Cuvier (whose full name was Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert, baron Cuvier) led him to correspond widely with intellectuals around the world, including prominent Americans such as Thomas Jefferson and Charles Willson Peale. The leading naturalist of his day, Cuvier founded the modern science of paleontology, and also contributed greatly to vertebrate and invertebrate zoology. After Cuvier's death in 1832, his French associates sought contributions for a monument at the Muséum nationale d'Histoire naturelle in Paris, where he had lived and worked. The APS quickly pledged 1000 francs. In return, artist Pierre-Jean David d’Angers sent this signed cast of his study for the monument, a colossal head of Cuvier based on the death mask by Emanuel Rousseau. |
Medium |
Plaster |
Dimensions |
H-31 W-18 D-18 inches |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society. Gift of the Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, 1833. |
Search Terms |
19th century nineteenth century sculpture scientist France French paleontology zoology natural history |