English, Late 18th/Early 19th Century

With Daniel Katz Ltd., London, 1987;

Sotheby's London, 8 December 2006, lot 132;

Sotheby's New York, 2 February 2018, lot 328;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

Although the sculptor of this bronze remains unknown, the head is clearly based on 17th century Baroque prototypes, particularly those by Bernini and Duquesnoy.

The model is sometimes found paired with the bust of a crying child. If intended as pendants, together they may reveal their original identification as young versions of the Greek philosophers Heraclitus and Democritus, the cheerful (i.e. laughing) and gloomy (i.e. crying). The Laughing Child model, however, was evidently more popular than its counterpart and largely reproduced.

RELATED LITERATURE

N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1992, 3 vols., no. 457;

M. Baker, Figured in Marble: the making and viewing of Eighteenth century Sculpture, London 2000, pp.90-93, pls.69-70 and no. 35, pp.174-75