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Girl Braiding her Hair

1600–1610
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 542
This statuette of a seated woman calmly braiding her hair is known in numerous examples, which differ in degree of refinement and facture. It is stylistically similar to a number of bronzes representing antique and modern genre subjects that include a praying boy, a woman cutting her nails, and a crouching woman with a peeing child. The female figure's pose, seated on a draped pedestal with crossed legs, is closely related to a bronze statuette of a crouching nymph pulling a thorn from her foot in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The fluid lines of the figure's composition, including its elongated torso and attenuated legs, observe the canon of proportion popularized in northern France by the engravings of the School of Fontainebleau. The statue's oval face, with its rounded forehead and long nose, suggests it is the work of Barthélemy Prieur, active bronzier and court sculptor to Henri IV of France. Prieur is believed to have modeled a number of genre subjects drawn from rural life, and his workshop produced numerous small bronze figures similar to Girl Braiding Her Hair. Unlike many of the bronzes attributed to him, this statuette does not reference the antique. Although nude, the figure conveys a spirit of innocence.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Girl Braiding her Hair
  • Artist: Barthélemy Prieur (French, Berzieux ca. 1536–1611 Paris)
  • Date: 1600–1610
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Bronze, with red-brown lacquer patina
  • Dimensions: Height: 7 in. (17.8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Bronze
  • Credit Line: The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982
  • Object Number: 1982.60.126
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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Panel fragment, Barthélemy Prieur French, Carved walnut (?), French
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Diana with a Hound, Barthélemy Prieur French, Bronze, French, probably Paris
Diana with a Hound
Barthélemy Prieur
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Bather, Barthélemy Prieur French, Bronze, with medium brown patina, and remains of dark brown lacquer, French
Bather
Barthélemy Prieur
early 17th century
Venus Anadyomene, Barthélemy Prieur French, Bronze, French, Paris
Venus Anadyomene
Barthélemy Prieur
early 17th century
Man Carrying a Child on His Shoulder, Barthélemy Prieur French, Bronze, French, probably Paris
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Barthélemy Prieur
late 16th–early 17th century

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