c. 1700-1720

Bust of a Woman

French (active Paris and Spain), 1672 - 1744

This portrait belongs to an innovative group in which French sculptors modernized the depiction of women along the lines of contemporary, early-eighteenth-century painters. A number of these busts represented women related to artists. Sometimes, as here, a sculptor at the beginning of his career would carve a bust to demonstrate his mastery of portraiture. Later, in the 1720s, while working for the Spanish court, Frémin executed a series of distinguished portraits of members of the royal family.