Collo, Marie Anna

At age 15, she became a model in the workshop of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoine , who was probably her first teacher. At 16, she became a student of E. Falconet , specializing in the field of sculptural portraiture. Collot's works performed in this genre include: “Actor Preville as Sganarelle ” (1765-1766), “Portrait of Diderot ” (1766, Paris , Museum of Architecture (Paris, French Musée des monuments français ), “Portrait of the Unknown” ( 1765, Paris, Louvre Museum ), Prince Golitsyn (1766) Golitsyn, the Russian envoy in Paris, who signed on behalf of the government a contract for the construction of the monument to Peter I Falcone, wrote to Chancellor A. M. Golitsyn: “He [Falcone] carries with him a young student 18 years old with a certain talent for portraits ^[4] . "

Collot arrived in St. Petersburg with E. Falconet in 1766, and until 1778 she lived and worked in Russia. Here she was successful and performed a series of portrait medallions and busts: a medallion depicting the favorite of the Empress Count G. G. Orlov (1767, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage ), Catherine II in a laurel wreath (1769, medallion , Gatchina Palace ; there are repetitions ); busts: Catherine II in the diadem, the young Voltaire (c. 1770); classic bust of Didro in antique style - with bare chest and shoulders (1772); portrait of E. Falcone (1773, all - St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum ).

In the 1770s, Collot performed portraits of the heir to Pavel Petrovich , his first wife Natalya Alekseevna and others. In 1767, she was elevated to the rank of academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts ^[5] . Perhaps the most significant creative achievement of Collot was her participation in the work on the head of Peter I for the equestrian monument, on which Falconet worked. The portrait was executed with the death mask of Peter Rastrelli. The original plaster model of this head is stored in the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg (1770s). Falcone considered this work a great success of his student. Catherine, who really liked the image created by Collot, awarded the artist a lifelong pension of 10,000 rubles and wished her to be elected to the Academy of Arts ^[6] . Judging by the correspondence of Falcone with the Empress, Collot's participation in the work on the monument was not limited to the portrait of Peter.

Collot also performed other “retrospective” portraits commissioned by Catherine, including busts of Henry IV and his minister Sully (c. 1769). Describing the creation of these works, Falcone claimed that Collot was more guided by his imagination. As samples, the artist used masks delivered from Paris.

In 1777 she married the son of Falcone, the painter Pierre Etienne. The marriage was unsuccessful, it is known that Marie-Anna filed a formal complaint against her husband for her ill-treatment. She left Paris in 1779 and, together with Falcone, worked in Holland . In The Hague, she performed several portraits: Stalthether Wilhelm von Nassau and his wife Frederick Sophie Wilhelmina von Nassau (both - c. 1782, The Hague, Mauritshuis ). The reason Collo left sculpture was unknown. From 1783 to 1791, she lived in Paris, where she looked after a father-in-law, partially paralyzed by a stroke. After the death of her husband and father-in-law (1791), Collot left for Lorraine and settled in Marimon (now part of the commune of Bourdonne ).

• Matsulevich J. French portrait sculpture of the XV — XVIII centuries in the Hermitage. L .; M., 1940.
• Lami St. Dictionnaire des sculpteurs français du XVIII-e s. Paris, 1911.
• S. N. Kondakov. Anniversary Directory of the Imperial Academy of Arts. 1764-1914 . - St. Petersburg: Partnership R. Golike and A. Vilborg, 1915. - T. 2 (Biographical part). - S. 258. - 459 p.

• Biography