Susan D. Durant (1827-1873) Portrait of Madame Lee Childe, née Blanche de Triqueti (1837-1886) Plaster medallion 51.4 x 40 cm Surface wear, scratches and small chips Related work : Susan Durant, Series of medallions representing the Royal Family for Wosley Chapel, 1864-70, marble, diam. 52 cm, Windsor Castle. Related literature: - Shannon Hunter Hurtado, The Company she Kept: Susan D. Durant, a Nineteenth-Century Sculptor and her feminist connections, a Thesis for degree of Master of Arts, Department of History, University of Manitoba, 1994 ; - Sylvia Allen and Richard Dagorne, "Le décor de la chapelle du Prince Albert", in Ss dir I. Leroy-Jay Lemaistre, Henry de Triqueti 1803-1874, Le Sculpteur des Princes, cat. exp, Orléans, musée des Beaux-Arts, Montargis, musée Girodet de Montargis, October 3, 2007-January 6, 2008, Paris, Hazan, p. 113-143 ; - Shannon Hunter Hurtado, Genteel Mavericks: professional Women sculptors in Victorian Britain, Cultural Interactions Studies in the Relationship between the Arts, vol. 27, Peter lang, 2012; - Jonathan Marsden, "Princess and Pupil. New works by Susan Durant and Victoria, Princess Royal of Prussia", in Perspectivia, 2023. This medallion portrait of Blanche de Triqueti bears many similarities to the series of royal portraits executed by Susan Durant to adorn the borders of the panels decorating the Wolsey Chapel in Windsor. In an April 2023 publication, Princess and Pupil. New works by Susan Durant and Victoria, Princess Royal of Prussia, Jonathan Marsden analyzes this series of portraits and notes that Susan Durant, who initially envisaged a career as a medallist, mastered the subject perfectly. She drew inspiration from the teachings of her master Triqueti and these "medallion busts", adapting the principle to the requirements of the Wolsey Chapel decor. As on a medal, these royal portraits are presented simply and strictly in profile. To give these portraits, which could only be seen from a distance in the chapel, a stronger presence, Susan Durant insisted on depth, sculpting them in very high relief and detaching the faces from the background. To accentuate the impression produced, the sculptor also uses a perspective effect. In contrast to the faces in profile, the shoulders are treated as "foreshortened", facing the viewer parallel to the background of the medallion. Susan Durant was inspired by the commemorative medallions found on ancient sarcophagi, and more particularly by Desiderio da Settignano's (1428-1464) interpretation of a mantelpiece that Susan had admired in the royal collections (Workshop of Desiderio da Settignano, c. 1466-70, Chimneypiece with the arms of the Boni family, sandstone, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv.5896-1859). This clever and ingenious process enlivens and energizes the composition, avoiding the pitfall of overly static portraits.