Bust of a Gentleman with ‘Cadogan’ hairstyle

A. Riffard (active in the late 18th century)
1795, Terracotta on a turquoise marble pedestal

The portrait of this individual with the low forehead, imposing nose, and fleshy mouth bears an inscription that reveals the incomplete name of the artist, a sculptor active in revolutionary France; the inscription reads: 'A. RIFFARD / Sculpsit. / 9 Fructidor an 3°'. The skill shown in this work and in the other work in the collection attributed to him, the Bust of a Woman, is proof of a prodigious talent, especially in the rendering of the character's visage, with a hairstyle, parted in the middle and with a ribbon to hold the hair at the nape of the neck, called à la Cadogan in honour of its inventor, the English general William Cadogan. It is therefore clearly the image of a character who was attentive to his appearance, although nature had not smiled upon him when it came to his features, which were rather unattractive – he may have made up for this with a firmness of character, as witnessed in the expression sculpted by Riffard in August 1795.