Théodore Rivière

Paris Salon, 1908

Overall the condition of the sculpture is excelletn with some moinor dirt to the surface. The bracelets do not appear to be original. There is some tarnishing to the silver surface and there in the crevices between the ivory and onyx some glue is visible.
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Théodore Rivière was born in Toulouse and studied there before entering the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, as a pupil of Jouffroy and Falguière. He then spent five years working in the studio of the successful sculptor Jean-Antonin Mercié. Rivière had his own Salon début in 1875 and continued to exhibit throughout his career. However, his entry of 1884 was refused due to the political nature of the work and although he exhibited again from 1885, he began to feel frustrated with the Salon which had never recognised his work with a medal.

In this mood of disappointment Rivière left Paris, arriving in Tunisia in 1890 where he became the drawing master at the arts academy of Carthage. It was during his stay in Tunisia, surrounded by an unfamiliar and fascinating culture, that Rivière's career took an upward turn. Inspired by Gustave Flaubert's Orientalist novel Salammbô, set in Carthage during the Punic wars, Rivière sent two works to the Salon based on the novel. Both were rapturously received and purchased by the State. He received his coveted first class medal from the Salon in 1897 and a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. His appointment as an officer of the Legion d'honneur in 1906 set the seal on his success.

Although he did produce large-scale monumental works, it was Rivière's small-scale sculptures in delicately pieced-together precious materials which were most admired. The present work, Désenchantée, exhibited at the Salon of 1908, is typical of his best work. Rivière's ivory nude steps through a marble portal, her delicate flesh framed by drapery in onyx and silver, her lips and eyes tinted to bring warmth to her pale form. Désenchantée presents all the imagined decadence and allure of the Orient, as seen through the eyes of one of the most accomplished and inventive sculptors of the genre.

RELATED LITERATURE
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-neuvième siècle, vol. IV, Paris, 1921, pp. 144-148