{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O165996"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O165996/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BU3361/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BU3361/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BU3361","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BU3371","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BU3370","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2008BU3362","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O165996/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O165996","accessionNumber":"A.3-2008","objectType":"Bronze head","titles":[{"title":"The Crying Child","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This head of a Crying Child is a pendant to that of the Laughing Child (A.2-2008). Other bronze versions of this head are known, although they differ significantly from one another. Pairs of the Laughing and Crying Child in bronze are highly unusual. It has been suggested that they recall the so-called Laughing and Weeping Philosophers, Heraclitus and Democritus. The Laughing and Crying Child in the V&A's collection were almost certainly made as pendants in the eighteenth century; both their virtually identical measurements and closely similar style suggest this, as does the high degree of finish. \r\n\r\nThe authorship and date of all the known versions of the heads are uncertain, although certain references point to an eighteenth-century origin, and to Roubiliac's probable authorship. Various plaster items in Roubiliac's sale catalogue of 1762 could refer to models and moulds of the heads, including one 'crying boy', moulds for a pair of 'naked busts', and casts of these, as well as the moulds of 'a young child', 'a laughing boy', and 'a boy's head'. The Laughing Child was evidently more popular than the Crying Child, although both became self-sufficient sculptures in their own right. The style recalls both Netherlandish and Italian sculpture of the 17th century, while the lightness of expression and their scale (about half life-size) are also reminiscent of French 18th-century sculpture, but all the surviving versions have a British provenance, and it seems most likely the original models were made in Britain, probably by Roubiliac.","physicalDescription":"Bronze head on wood socle with gilt metal mounts","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"bronze","id":"AAT10957"},{"text":"wood","id":"AAT11914"},{"text":"gilt metal","id":"x35080"}],"techniques":[{"text":"bronze casting","id":"x40164"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Cast bronze","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Bronze","id":"THES49033"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2008BU3361","2008BU3371","2008BU3370","2008BU3362"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"22","id":"THES49843"},"free":"","case":"2","shelf":"3","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Head","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1750-1800","earliest":"1750-01-01","latest":"1800-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"A.2-2008","id":"O165993"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the Hildburgh Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"40","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"16","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"14","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"maximum","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Pairs of the Laughing and Crying Child in bronze are highly unusual. It has been suggested that the pair of heads recall the so-called Laughing and Weeping Philosophers, Democritus and Heraclitus. The known bronze versions of the rarer Crying Child differ significantly from one another; one is in a private British collection and another is on long-term loan to the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.\nPurchased together with A.2-2008, for a total of 9,703.13 from the Partridge Fine Art Ltd using the Departmental Purchase Grant and the Hildburgh Fund.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Head, bronze, Crying Child, perhaps after a Netherlandish model, British, 1750-1800","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Thomas Hope and the Neoclassical Vision, Christie's Sale Catalogue, 24 April 2008"}],"production":"Perhaps after a Netherlandish model","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"head","id":"x41705"},{"text":"child","id":"x31382"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.3-2008"],"accessionNumberNum":"3","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":2008,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2008-08-14","availableToBook":false}}