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Bust

1910–1920
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
In 1896 Imans began producing unconventional, naturalistic mannequins in wax. Unlike the generic, faceless fashion dolls that decorated shop windows across Europe, Imans’s proxies donned face paint, resin eyes, eyelashes, and wigs of human hair. What is more, they bore names and were photographed as chic celebrity types in marketing catalogues. Imans refused to call his wax figures "mannequins." Their realism and elegant modeling render them veritable sculpture, modern portrait busts that hover fascinatingly between high art and popular, commercial appeal.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bust
  • Artist: Pierre Imans (French flourished 1890s–1940s)
  • Date: 1910–1920
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Painted wax, residual hair, silk ribbon, cotton net, and resin
  • Dimensions: 22 1/16 × 17 1/2 × 8 1/4 in., 243.363oz. (56 × 44.5 × 21 cm, 6.9 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Fashion Museum Bath
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art