Sleeping Boy

Philippe Laurent Roland

ca. 1774 · Terracotta, painted white · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Made during Roland's sojourn in Italy (1770-1776). Probably served as a model for versions in marble (1774) and bronze, which would suggest a date before 1774. Influenced by sleeping erotes and depictions of Thanatos of classical antiquity;decision to include the arms, of which one is exposed and the other truncated and draped, is a revival of Baroque usage. Also reminiscent of genre-studies such as Greuze's half-lengths.

Artist

Philippe Laurent Roland

Date

ca. 1774

Medium

Terracotta, painted white

Culture

Italian, Rome

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Wrightsman Fund, 1990