Sleeping Boy ca. 1774 Philippe Laurent Roland Given the sculptor Philippe-Laurent Roland’s reverence for his master, Augustin Pajou, it is no surprise the terracotta Sleeping Boy shares the vivacity of Pajou’s Head of a Bearded Elder (acc. no. ). A young boy of about ten years has fallen asleep in an upright position. His right hand cradles his lolling head, while the left arm hides in drapery which circles from that shoulder to the other side. The fingers sink into the fleshy cheek and displace the lips from their normal position beneath the nose. These irregularities, along with the t

Sleeping Boy ca. 1774 Philippe Laurent Roland Given the sculptor Philippe-Laurent Roland’s reverence for his master, Augustin Pajou, it is no surprise the terracotta Sleeping Boy shares the vivacity of Pajou’s Head of a Bearded Elder (acc. no. ). A young boy of about ten years has fallen asleep in an upright position. His right hand cradles his lolling head, while the left arm hides in drapery which circles from that shoulder to the other side. The fingers sink into the fleshy cheek and displace the lips from their normal position beneath the nose. These irregularities, along with the taut sinews of the hand and slightly disheveled hair, stand out against the smooth skin of his exposed sculptor’s brilliantly observed, relaxed naturalism is all the more astonishing because the work was executed in Rome, where he was applying himself to rigorous study of antique art; however, James Draper, who first identified Sleeping Boy as one of Roland’s three known Roman sculptures, noted that ancient sculptures of sleeping boys may have served the artist as a precedent. He also pointed out that it is, in fact, the genre studies of painters like Jean-Baptiste Greuze that lie behind Roland’s intentions here.[1] From an account by Roland’s star pupil, Pierre-Jean David d’Angers, we know that the master modeled this and another half-length study, Old Man Sleeping, in Rome between 1771 and 1776.[2] Comparison of the two is enough to convince us that the artist was interested in their complementary natures, even if he did not intend them as formal pendants. The old man also rests head on hand, and details of bulging veins and wrinkled knuckles underscore his age. The greater width of Old Man Sleeping and the sound placement of the two arms, both of which are visible, reveal the relative precariousness of the boy’s pose, accentuated by the tall, irregular self-base and the drapery slipping off one shoulder. One senses that he may tip to one side and jol

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