Pierre-Jean David, known as David d'ANGERS (Angers, 1788 - Paris, 1856) Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786-1859) 1832 Bas-relief in red wax on slate Signed lower left "David" and titled upper right in graphite "Desbordes Valmore H. 14,1 x L. 12,5 cm Provenance : -Victor Pavie (1808-1886), friend of the artist who gave him this wax. -André Pavie (1873-1940), grandson of Victor Pavie. Exhibition: La Jeunesse des romantiques, Paris, Maison de Victor Hugo, 18 May-30 June 1927, cat. no. 844 (collection of M. André Pavie). Related work: David d'Angers, Marceline Valmore, 1832, bronze medallion, diam. 14.8 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. RF 3046. Bibliography: - H. Jouin, David d'Angers, sa vie, son œuvre, ses écrits et ses contemporains, Paris, 1878, t. II, p. 490. - B. Rivière (ed.). Correspondance intime de Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Paris, 1896, vol. I, p. 38. - L. Descaves, La Vie douloureuse de Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Paris, 1910, p. 116. - R. Pierrot, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore : 1786-1859, catalog of the exhibition organized for the centenary of her death, Paris, 1959, p. 51. - T. Laugee, I. Villela-Petit (dir.), David d'Angers, les visages du romantisme, Montreuil, 2011, p. 99. "I spent a large part of the day at David's (...) David is as good as a peasant, he has a blue coat, he received me as a brother. He asked me in grace to stay again on Wednesday to finish the plaster that he is going to cast from his wax sketch. (...) Alas! my dear Angel, your love will perhaps not be happy, I find myself ugly to tears. The hairstyle is beautiful however and will please you, I am sure. He says that I resemble the daughters of the bards of Girodet, finally you will see. Arago cries out about the resemblance. Me, I don't know my profile well. (...)", such are the words that Marceline Desbordes-Vilmore writes to her husband Prosper Lanchantin, known as Valmore, in a letter dated December 10, 1832, to tell him about her experience of posing for the famous sculptor David of Angers. The actress and poetess belonged to the circle of pioneer artists of the Romantic School, the same one that David d'Angers frequented and from which he chose most of his models for his Pantheon of Contemporary Glories. Admiring the sculpture of David d'Angers, entitled Young Greek woman with the tomb of Marco Botzaris, presented at the Salon of 1827, she wrote a poem about it. The admiration was mutual as the sculptor invited her to pose for him. Here the incisive and rapid rendering of the hair in wax contrasts with the interiorized attitude of this great woman of letters with lowered eyes. During his legendary posing sessions, the sculptor sought above all to represent, beyond a realistic portrait, the high values embodied by his models: "Whether I am in front of Beauty, genius or indomitable courage, or a defender of freedom, I feel a kind of intoxication, my hand trembles, my heart beats and I work. This portrait of Marceline served as a model for the bronze effigy that adorns the poetess' tomb in the Montmartre cemetery in Paris.