Augustin Thierry

Art Historical Context

This exquisite bronze medal, titled *Augustin Thierry*, is a collaborative portrait by the renowned French Romantic sculptor Pierre-Jean David d'Angers Louis Richard, created in 1828 and before 1844. just 5½ x 5⅜ inches, it captures the profile of Augustin Thierry, a pioneering French historian celebrated for his vivid narratives of medieval history, such as *The Conquest of England by the Normans*. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's European Sculpture and Decorative Arts department, this intimate plaquette exemplifies the medal's role as a portable tribute to intellectual luminaries. David d'Angers, a master of neoclassical precision infused with Romantic expressiveness, specialized in such small-scale portraits, which were highly prized in 19th-century France for their affordability and elegance. The bronze medium allowed for fine detailing through lost-wax casting, producing a sharp, lifelike profile that conveys Thierry's thoughtful demeanor. These medals bridged sculpture and numismatics, serving as both art objects and personal mementos exchanged among elites. As a snapshot of early 19th-century cultural reverence for historians amid France's post-Revolutionary intellectual fervor, this piece highlights how artists like David d'Angers immortalized the era's thinkers, blending classical profile traditions with modern individualism. A gift to the Met in 2009, it invites visitors to appreciate the medal's subtle artistry up close.

About the Artist

Pierre Jean David d'Angers|Louis Richard · 1788–1856

Pierre-Jean David d'Angers, born on March 12, 1788, in Angers, France, to a wood carver and ornamental sculptor father who had fought in the Republican army, began his artistic training locally under Marchand and Jean-Jacques Delusse at the École centrale d'Angers from 1806 to 1807. In 1808, he arrived in Paris with scant funds and entered the studio of Philippe-Laurent Roland, later working under...