Long nineteenth century · Art Institute of Chicago · 154240
Silence
Auguste Préault, 1842–43
Art Institute of Chicago · Robert Allerton and Harry and Maribell Blum endowments; through prior acquisitions of Howard Van Doren Shaw · Public domain
- Artist
- Auguste Préault
- Date
- 1842–43
- Medium
- Plaster
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 40 cm (15 3/4 in.)
- Era
- Long nineteenth century
Why it matters
Auguste Préault created this roundel (a composition with a circular format) for the tomb of Jacob Roblès in Père-Lachaise, a Parisian cemetery. Departing from more conventional, comforting funerary imagery of the period—portraits of the deceased or melancholy images of mourning—Préault instead modeled a stark evocation of death. Here, a frail finger is raised to the lips of a deeply shrouded and skeletal face with heavy-lidded eyes, perhaps marking the frontier between life and death. The sculpture met with immediate acclaim upon its first exhibition and became an icon of Romanticism.