Lawrence MacDonald

Lawrence Macdonald, born at Bonnyview, Findo-Gask, Perthshire, was a leading Scottish Neoclassical sculptor who spent most of his life working in Rome. He first moved there in late 1822, setting up his sculpture studio and he became a founding member of the British Academy of Arts in Rome. Macdonald was closely acquainted with the renowned sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (who was active in Rome until his death in 1844) and inherited his studio in the Palazzo Barberini. 

The present marble of a an unidentified girl shows Macdonald’s affinity with ideal statuary, with her subtle contrapposto pose, classicising facial features with open blank eyes, and finely carved drapery. The girl's hairstyle, comprising two flowers and ringlet curls on either side of her face, appears in various busts by Macdonald's hand, including a bust of an unidentified young girl sold in these rooms 8 July 2003, lot 179.

RELATED LITERATURE

I. Roscoe, E. Hardy and M.G. Sullivan, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851, New Haven and London, 2009, pp.775-781