Parisian sculptor Marie-Anne Collot received extraordinary recognition for her realistic and expressive portrait busts. Her works were collected by European elites and royalty, most importantly the Russian empress Catherine II – Catherine the Great. M.-A. Collot’s artistic skills are well reflected in the recently reattributed portrait bust of a young girl, possibly the 12-year-old Marianne Dorothea Gotsilyn, daughter of the Russian princely couple Dimitri Gotsilynand Amalia von Schmettau. In this sculpture, the childlike innocence of the girl is captured through her delicate features and modest smile. M.-A. Collot’s attention to detail, apparent in the ribbon around the girl’s neck, demonstrates her realistic technique.

M.-A. Collot’s path to success was not an easy one. She was born in Paris, and her parents died when she was a child. To make a living, she started working as a model for the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1704–1778), at the age of fifteen. Shortly after, she continued modelling for the famous sculptor Étienne Maurice Falconet (1716–1791). Under his guidance, she ventured into the profession of sculpting. Immersed in É. M. Falconet’s circle of prominent intellectuals, including the philosopher Voltaire, her talent rapidly gained recognition, leading to multiple commissions.

In 1766, M.-A. Collot travelled to St. Petersburg as companion to her tutor, who had been commissioned by the Russian empress to sculpt a statue of Tsar Peter the Great. Shortly after her arrival, she established herself an acknowledged position as sculptor. Catherine II commissioned multiple portraits by M.-A. Collot, rewarding her with a lifelong payment. In 1767, she made history as the first female member of the city’s Imperial Academy of Arts. When É. M. Falconet encountered difficulties in designing the head of his statue, Catherine II assigned this task to M.-A. Collot. The resulting equestrian still overlooks Senate Square in St. Petersburg today.

After a year of studying under the Parisian sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828), M.-A. Collot returned to St. Petersburg in 1777, where she married Pierre-Étienne Falconet (1741–1791), her tutor’s son. One year later, she welcomed a daughter and subsequently returned to Paris. However just a year after this, her marriage came to a tumultuous end. She then embarked on a trip to The Hague where she received commissions from the Stadtholder and his wife as well as several Dutch intellectuals, including the celebrated physician Petrus Camper and philosopher Frans Hemsterhuis.

She returned to Paris in 1780 but her artistic career came to an end three years later when she chose to care for her paralysed father-in-law, until his death in 1791. At this time, the French Revolution had swept over Paris and M.-A. Collot was forced to flee her hometown as a result of her high societal status and close ties to the European aristocracy. She sought refuge in a château in Mariemont, Lorraine, where she lived with her daughter and son-in-law until her death in 1821, leaving an extremely impressive legacy behind that continues to be celebrated today.