Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux French, 1827-1875

Sold in the first Atelier Carpeaux sale, lots 21 & 22, 2 June 1894, Hôtel Drouot, commissaire-priseur Tual expert; bought back by Mme Carpeaux; sold in the second Atelier sale, lots 28 & 29, 8 December 1913, galerie Manzi Joyant, commissaire-priseur Baudoin, Durand-Ruel expert; bought by Durand-Ruel; sold in the Durand-Ruel sale, lot 39 & 40, 27 November 1974, Galleria, commissaire-priseur Ader; bought by Fabius Frères; Private collection, Paris

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Sa famille et ses amis, Musée Roybet-Fould, Courbevoie, November 1975-January 1976, no.8 (La Rieuse only); Le Cortège des Passions, Galerie UDB, Paris, 1994, p.11

M. Poletti & A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Sculpteur. Catalogue Raisonnée de l'oeuvre édité, Angers, 2003, pp.145-46, no.BU43 & pp.148-49, no.BU47

A sculptor's foundry model is the origin of all subsequent bronze castings.  It sets the standards for the foundry practiciens who carry out the finishing of the bronze: chasing and patinating the cast to the requirements of the artist or editeur. The foundry model brings us closest to the sculptor’s original intentions in the purity of line and clarity of detail. Distinct from the sculptor’s terracotta maquette or original plaster made for pointing into marble, the foundry model is the most permanent record of the sculptor’s artistic vision.

These vibrant, joyful busts of Le Rieur Napolitain and La Rieuse Napolitaine are iconic images of nineteenth century French sculpture. The unselfconscious grin and natural vitality of these Italianate subjects initiated a central theme in Carpeaux’s oeuvre.  As busts taken from the full-length figures of Le Jeune Pêcheur à la coquille and La Jeune Fille à la coquille they epitomise the innovative approach to the demands of making a living from sculpture which Carpeaux developed by extracting elements from his most successful compositions for commercial editing. The harmonisation between function and beauty, between industry and art, is central to our understanding of nineteenth century sculpture. Carpeaux’s unique foundry models of the Rieur and Rieuse are outstanding examples of works in which function and beauty are matched. The busts have a precision of line and subtlety of surface that is so often diminished in later reproductions.   At the same time these busts are functional objects.  They are the starting point from which subsequent bronze casts were made.  They are the key reference in the atelier castings of Carpeaux’s bronzes against which the standard of casts made for sale would have been judged.

While Carpeaux may have been in reality only marginally involved in the routine reproductions edited by his atelier, it is clear that he was personally responsible for setting the basic technical standards.  In this respect the creation of the master foundry models is central for all future casts and would have been the prime concern of Carpeaux himself.  The master foundry model presents, therefore, a tangible example of the hand of the master. The bold, vibrant surface of the present master models reveal their practical use in the foundry.  The back of the hair of the Rieuse is detachable for separate casting and a plate at the top of the head is also removable.  The roughened patches on the girl's forehead and cheek and on the boy's bare shoulder would have been caused by moulding procedures and the vertical parallel patterning on the girl's skin is probably evidence of pantographic reproducing techniques.  In addition to these physical marks of their function, the freshness of the modelling in the drapery, hair and physiognomy retains the spontaneity of the original terracotta models. The boy's shoulder and girl's neck seem to pulsate with life, with a tension between the anatomy and skin inevitably made lifeless by the the hand of the practiciens in edited casts.  Thus, the importance of these busts rests in the unique combination of their functional use and the sensitivity of their modelling. As unique master foundry models they give us information about the technique of sculpture. As bronzes they have an inherent beauty which stems directly from the hand of the sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.