19TH CENTURY, AFTER A MODEL BY AUGUSTIN PAJOU

Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) was Madame du Barry's favourite sculptor and from 1770 to 1773 he made five portraits busts of her, all with different coiffures. The final bust Pajou created for her, which the present composition is after, is now in the collection of the Louvre, Paris. So impressed was Louis XV with Pajou's representations of Madame du Barry that he granted Pajou a workshop in the Louvre.

Madame du Barry was the last Matresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France. Louis XV built the Château de Louveciennes for her, where she retired after his death in 1774. Madame du Barry was guillotined during the Revolution in 1793.