Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (Valenciennes 1827 - 1875 Courbevoie)

In 1863, the renowned architect Charles Garnier commissioned the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux to create a figural group for the façade of the new Paris Opera House. This project resulted in Carpeaux’s monumental figural sculpture La Danse, which initially provoked intense criticism but eventually attained a “semisacred status.”¹

The creation of this important work, however, brought Carpeaux and his wife close to financial ruin. To alleviate their difficulties, the sculptor began producing reduced editions of La Danse. This initiative ultimately resulted in the production of nine distinct compositions, each drawing on different elements of the original design for inspiration.²

The present Three Graces belongs to this enterprising series. Here, Carpeaux extracts three of the bacchantes from La Danse, removing the dominant central figure and reimagining the remaining dancers as a tightly interwoven trio. The result is a composition that preserves the exuberance of the original façade sculpture while offering a more intimate, collectible interpretation.

Carpeaux’s reductions were wildly popular, so much so that the write Henry James observed how "the shop windows just now are full" of Carpeaux’s creations.³

¹ J. Draper and E. Papet, The Passions of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, New Haven and London 2014, p. 153.

² Ibid., p. 153.

³ Ibid.

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Poletti and A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Sculpteur. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre édité, Paris 2003, p. 101.