Skip to Content
Closed today, next open tomorrow. Closed today, next open tomorrow.

Silence

A work made of plaster.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

Image actions

  • A work made of plaster.

Date:

1842/43

Artist:

Auguste Préault
French, 1809-1879

About this artwork

Auguste Préault created this roundel (a composition with a circular format) for the tomb of Jacob Roblès in Père-Lachaise, a Parisian cemetery. Departing from more conventional, comforting funerary imagery of the period—portraits of the deceased or melancholy images of mourning—Préault instead modeled a stark evocation of death. Here, a frail finger is raised to the lips of a deeply shrouded and skeletal face with heavy-lidded eyes, perhaps marking the frontier between life and death. The sculpture met with immediate acclaim upon its first exhibition and became an icon of Romanticism.

Status

On View, Gallery 220

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Antoine Augustin Préault

Title

Silence

Place

France (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1842–1843

Medium

Plaster

Dimensions

Diam.: 40 cm (15 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Robert Allerton and Harry and Maribell Blum endowments; through prior acquisitions of Howard Van Doren Shaw

Reference Number

2000.46

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/154240/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share