American Art Collaborative

Thomas Ball’s eight-year-old niece, Annie Chickering, posed for this sculpture in the late 1860s. The figure appears deep in thought, gazing down at the pansies and lilies on her bodice. The title of the piece is likely a pun combining the words “pansy” and pensée, which means “thought.” The sculpture also illustrates a line from act 4 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which Ophelia says to Laertes: “. . . and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.
“. . . the little head ‘La Petite Pensée’ . . . has had such a wonderful success.” Thomas Ball, My Fourscore Years