Coyly looking down Madame Weber holds a veil across her chest. The sheath both demurely conceals and reveals her breasts. Sculptor Craig Mackie cleverly compensated for the artificiality of the bust form by elongating the bust to mid-torso and covering the transition between the body and pedestal with drapery creating a work of surprising naturalism. The softly modeled limbs and the slight twists of her head and shoulders suggest a living presence while the upswept hairstyle suggests Weber’s elegance.

Anna Weber was celebrated in French Empire society for her beauty and love affairs. Married at fifteen to a wealthy lawyer who may have been her natural father she had a loveless unconsummated marriage and carried on numerous flagrant affairs the most celebrated with the Prince Augustus the youngest brother of King Frederick II. In her Parisian townhouse she held a fashionable literary salon frequented by the political and educated elite.