Self Portrait ca. 1785 Philippe Laurent Roland Neither signed nor dated, this marble bust of a man with a bare chest is a self-portrait of the Neoclassical sculptor Philippe-Laurent Roland. The subjects profile matches that in a medallion of Roland executed by his pupil Pierre-Jean David dAngers (1788-1856). Furthermore, the bust remained in the possession of members of the Roland family. Dating to about 1785, when the sculptor was nearly forty years of age and at the height of his powers, the portrait, though austere, shows a lean man with intelligent, well-knit features and a direct gaze. David dAngers, who wrote a biography of his teacher, remembered Roland as a man of average height and with a high-strung disposition: His "ruddy complexion revealed a sanguine character but with a predominantly nervous aspect.. His eyes were lively and penetrating like those of an artist. His mouth was large but well delineated. Like people occupied with serious matters, he spoke little. In his s