Little girl with bird and apple

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was a French sculptor of the eighteenth century whose work bridged the ornamental Rococo tradition and a more austere neoclassical sensibility. He excelled in portrait busts, allegorical monuments, and large-scale public commissions, working primarily in marble and bronze. His formal training under Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre and subsequent success at the French Academy established him as one of the period's most sought-after sculptors. Pigalle's compositions balance elegance with psychological observation, particularly evident in his figural work and memorial sculptures.