After JEAN-BAPTISTE PIGALLE. France, late 18th century

After JEAN-BAPTISTE PIGALLE (Paris, 1714–1785). France, late 18th century.
“L’Enfant à la cage.”
Carved white marble on a gilded bronze base.
Measurements: 52 × 37 × 37 cm.

This sculpture is a reproduction of “L’Enfant à la cage,” one of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle’s most famous child figures, originally carved in marble in 1749 and currently housed in the Louvre Museum. The work was commissioned by the financier Jean Pâris de Montmartel and is considered a portrait of his son Armand Louis Joseph, the future Marquis de Brunoy. Presented at the 1750 Salon, it achieved remarkable success and subsequently inspired versions and reproductions in various materials.

The model’s appeal lies in the extraordinary naturalness with which Pigalle depicted childhood, moving away from the conventional idealization of the putto. The boy appears absorbed and slightly melancholic next to the empty cage, combining the anatomical softness of the body with an expression of great intimacy. The iconography was further developed in *L’Enfant à l’oiseau et à la pomme*, later conceived as a pendant, in which a girl holds the bird that has escaped from the cage.

The composition’s popularity endured for a long time: the Sèvres porcelain manufactory produced a biscuit porcelain version in 1777, and later examples in bronze and marble are also known, several of which are preserved in French museum collections. This 19th-century version recreates the model in white marble—the material of Pigalle’s original—and enhances it with an elaborate gilded bronze pedestal in the neoclassical style, whose floral motifs add ornamental richness without detracting from the figure’s prominence.

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was one of the great figures of 18th-century French sculpture. His work stood out for its renewed focus on naturalism and the individuality of the subject, qualities particularly evident in his portraits and figures of children. *L’Enfant à la cage* is among his most widely known and recognizable compositions, a fact that explains the model’s enduring popularity throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.