Mrs. Frederich Augustus Ferdinand Pettrich

Ferdinand Pettrich, born Dresden, Germany 1798-died Rome, Italy 1872 · ca. 1835

Anna Michelina Baldasari married Ferdinand Pettrich in Rome in 1827. Eight years later, the young couple traveled first to Philadelphia and then to Washington, where they settled with their three sons in Georgetown. In this sculpture bust, likely made shortly after their arrival in America, Pettrich presents his young wife wearing the robe of a mythological goddess, much like the allegorical figures that he had sculpted in Rome before coming to this country.