Carpeaux's Mysterious Sculpture

Author(s): Henry H. Hawley

Source: The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Vol. 63, No. 4 (Apr., 1976), pp. 99-107
Published by: Cleveland Museum of Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152633
Accessed: 18-08-2015 19:17 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cleveland Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Bulletin of the Cleveland
Museum of Art.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

''*

.i) 1
?p:-?
*I'

19

jjsi r?

"':?:::

Si?

"r,

.e

*;:

.:'::
??,le

.:?....:
?:: .. i:

:"
ii:

:rq
?::
.Ir:
??
??ri?
?-u
?

.i:
I ??!?
?"s?ii

:1?
V:i'

";'

?,.
::::;:;::'F9;1':
"::iiti
?aElr?'
i;

::.:i
::':
.1F?

?kl
.?.:.

IJTJC?

ii::

??
?:;::
::::..::
:i?:?:
':??:'
:.:??
.i
???:?
??i?i
??.?:.
???
;i?

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Carpeaux's

Mysterious

Sculpture

In largemeasure Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's biography parallels

thatwhich legend has led us to expect of a nineteenth-century
French artist.1 Born in 1827 at Valenciennes in northeastern
France, his early life was a series of hardships and struggles,
only occasionally relieved by a small success or encourage
ment. His father was a mason of modest means. While still a
boy inValenciennes, Carpeaux studied at the "Academies" in
that city. A knowledge of architecture was the not surprising
objective of the ambitious boy. In 1838 he moved with his
family to Paris. A cousin who was an artist, Victor Liet, per
suaded Carpeaux's father in 1842 to enroll his son in the so
called Petite Ecole, a free academy where drawing was taught.
Carpeaux's fellow pupils there were the future architects
Charles Garnier and Gabriel Davioud, with both of whom he
was later associated on important projects. At the end of the
decade Carpeaux himself taught at the Petite Ecole, numbering
among his pupils the two most important sculptors of the late
nineteenth-century inFrance, Auguste Rodin and JulesDalou.
The latter, especially, owed much toCarpeaux in terms both of
practical help and stylistic direction.
Carpeaux's own progress up the ladder of official recogni
tion and success was far from steady. In 1844 he accomplished
the first important step by becoming a student at the Acad
emie des Beaux-Arts. He studied under Francois Rude, the
leading French sculptor of romantic tendencies who is remem
bered today chiefly for his powerful relief, La Marseillaise, on
the Arc de Triomphe. Carpeaux's admiration for Rude's
sculpture isdemonstrated in one of his early works, the Fisher
boy with a Shell, which was clearly based upon awork by Rude.
Carpeaux observed, however, that Rude's pupils did not win
prizes, and after a comparatively short time, he withdrew from
Rude's studio to enter that of the sculptor Francisque Duret,
who was more conservative and hence more acceptable in aca
Figure 1.Bust of a Lady (FannyColeman?). Marble,
32-3/4

x 23 x 15-1/2

inches

(83.2 x 58.5 x 39.4 cm.),

1872. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French, 1827-1875.

Purchase, John L. Severance Fund. CMA75.5
A detail

is shown

on the front cover.

The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Volume LXIII, Number 4,

April, 1976. Published monthly, except July and August, by The
Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Boulevard at University Circle,
Cleveland, Ohio 44106. Subscriptions $8.00 per year for Museum
Members; $10.00 per year for non-members. Single copies, $1.00.
Copyright 1976, by The Cleveland Museum of Art. Second-class postage
paid at Cleveland, Ohio. Museum photography by Nicholas Hlobeczy;
design by Merald E. Wrolstad.

demic circles, where the classicizing ideals of theCanova tradi

tion still held sway. Carpeaux's talents as amodeler were soon
recognized, and he won several medals and was awarded a
stipend by his native city of Valenciennes. But either because
of his less than wholehearted espousal of the academic ideals
which prevailed in official circles or (as Carpeaux himself
thought) for reasons of personal malice, he was not awarded
the Grand Prix de Rome until 1854, ten years after he had
entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. This prize assured for Car
peaux not only several years study inRome under government
patronage, but also, upon the successful completion of theRo
man sojourn, the likelihood of a career supported by a stream
of commissions for official decorations and monuments.
Before 1854 Carpeaux had already achieved a degree of offi
cial recognition by stepping outside the usual paths of academ
ic progression. Napoleon III had recently ascended the throne
as Emperor of France. Carpeaux designed a large bas-relief,
The Submission of'Abd-el-Kader, which was symbolic of the co
lonial ambitions of the French under Napoleon III. The relief
was exhibited at the Salon of 1853, but it was unflatteringly
shown and failed to attract the attention of the Emperor or the
critics. In the fall of that year, Napoleon planned to make a
grand tour of northern France, including Valenciennes. Car
peaux conceived the idea of showing his sculpture to the Em
peror when he visited his native city and had the large relief
packed and shipped there.He was unsuccessful in showing it at
Valenciennes, so he followed the Emperor toAmiens where he
was finally able to present his work. Napoleon was sufficiently
impressed by the composition to decree its translation from
plaster tomarble. The official commission for the relief came in
1854. It is possible that this evidence of imperial favor may
have had some influence upon Carpeaux's being awarded the
Grand Prix de Rome in that year.
He remained in Paris through most of 1855 in order to com
plete themarble relief but was in residence at the French Acad
emy inRome by the beginning of the year 1856. He remained
there, with a few short visits to France and elsewhere in Italy,
until 1862. During those years he completed one of his most
important sculptures, the heroic group of Ugolino and His
Children. Based on Dante, the subject was one which permitted
Carpeaux to express through intertwined, Michaelangelesque
nudes the intensely romantic emotion of despair. The plaster
of the Ugolino group was shown inRome in the fall of 1861 and
in Paris the next year. Its reception in Paris was not as enthusi
astic as Carpeaux had hoped though the state did commission
a bronze to be cast from the plaster model. Carpeaux had
99

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Carpeaux. Paris, Place de l'Observatoire.

....::.

: ...:... ....:

In 1867 Carpeaux completed designs for his last large-scale

public monument in Paris, a fountain inwhat was then the
southern end of the Luxembourg Gardens, facing the Ob
servatoire (Figure 2). The announced subject of this fountain
was to be the "Four Cardinal Directions," in honor of theOb
servatoire, from which the geographic position of Paris was
measured. Carpeaux modified this abstract concept to the tra
ditional allegory of the Four Parts of theWorld, represented
by four nude women who support an armillary sphere within
which is a globe. In one important respect Carpeaux departed
from tradition in his design for this fountain. The symbols used
to identify the continents were, for themost part, abandoned.
America wears a feathered headdress and Africa a leg iron, but
the plants and animals which had traditionally identified the
continents in their allegorical representations are missing. In
stead, Carpeaux relied upon very realistic depictions of the
racial types identified with the various continents to convey his
meaning. In 1868 he modeled busts, a Chinese (Figure 3) and a
Negress, which were made as studies for the fountain.2 These
busts were exhibited at the Salon of 1869. The late 1860s were
the years inwhich Carpeaux was busily engaged in completing
La Danse, as well as in executing a number of other public and
private commissions. It is, therefore, not surprising that work
on the Four Parts of theWorld went rather slowly. By 1870 the
modeling of the fountain figures had progressed quite far, but
then the Franco-Prussian War and its aftermath, the Com
mune, interfered. It was not until 1872 that the final plaster
was exhibited at the Salon. In August 1874 the bronze was
erected in the Luxembourg Gardens.
In the meantime an important event had occurred in Car
peaux's private life. In the spring of 1869 he married Louise de
Montfort, daughter of a general who had been ennobled by
Napoleon III. By this marriage Carpeaux both enhanced his
social status and drew closer to the regime in power. Their first
year of marriage seems to have been a happy time for Car
peaux. Their first child, a son, was bor a year after the wed
ding. Before the end of 1870, however, the circumstances of
Carpeaux's life in both its public and private aspects changed
for the worse. The second Empire had collapsed in September
1870 under the pressure of the Prussian attack. Although Car
peaux's admiration for the politics of Napolean III was not
wholehearted, he was closely related to the court and personal
ly grateful to the Emperor for his early recognition and encour
agement. By 1870 Carpeaux's reputation as a sculptor was
firmly established and his career does not seem to have suffered
materially from the loss of imperial patronage itself.

.........................
...:...
?

wanted it carved frommarble, a project which was later under

taken without government patronage.
In 1862 Carpeaux was given a commission for a portrait bust
The imposing
cousin.
cousin. The
of
of Princess
Princess Mathilde,
image
Mathilde, Napoleon's
image
imposing
Napoleon's
which Carpeaux produced of her was exhibited in the Salon of
1863. From the same exhibition the Empress Eugenie acquired
the Rudian Fisherboy with a Shell, which Carpeaux had exe
cuted in Italy. As long as Napoleon III reigned, Carpeaux's
eminence was assured by patronage from the highest political
and social level. In that same year he was commissioned to pro
vide an important relief for the Pavillion de Flore at the Louvre,
and at the end of the year discussions began about the work
which was to be Carpeaux's most famous, the group of La
Danse for the Paris Opera's facade, forwhich Gamier was the
architect. The official commission for La Danse was given in
the great architectural monument of the Second Empire, was
1865, and itwas unveiled in 1869. The very realistic depiction
of nude figures in lively action aroused widespread public pro
alterati
Na
Ialylons.
had not so soon become engaged with the far
test. If France
more serious problem of war with Prussia, it ispossible that the
improprieties of La Danse might have caused its removal from
the Opera House despite the official recognition which Car
peaux had been given by the Emperor. Following defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War, themood of France seems to have been
to return to normalcy as quickly as possible. Gamis laterundera,
brought to completion under the Third Republic, with few
100

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Carpeaux.

Purchase,

John L. Severance

Fund.

CMA 72.49

Beginning in the fall of 1870 amore serious difficulty became

manifest inhis private lifewhen he first accused his wife of adul
tery.What truth, if any, theremay have been in these accusa
tions is now immaterial, but it is clear that from 1870 onward
his domestic situation remained unsettled, despite several tem
I|~~~~~~~~~~~~~F
porary reconciliations.3 By the end of 1873 itwas apparent that
was
and
that
date
he
to
after
was
en
unable
Carpeaux
quite ill,
gage in any sustained professional activity. His separation
from his wife became constant, and he lived in hospitals and
with friends until his death from cancer on October 12, 1875.
In addition to domestic turmoil, Carpeaux was also plagued
4k.
in his last years by a lack of money. The reasons for this situa
tion are complex, but certainly the bad state of the French
economy after the Franco-Prussian War was a significant fac
tor.4 From the mid-1860s onward, Carpeaux had operated a
veritable factory for the production of versions of his sculp
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
it
im| m
tures at his studio at Auteuil.5 Bronzes after his designs were
also cast to his order by commercial founders. These produc
tions were increased in the 1870s, and Carpeaux resorted to
.
::_i.~,.?~.~
public auction sales inFrance and abroad to dispose of the re
sulting works.
In part to escape the privations of Paris in thewake of war,
%..._
_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
..
M
Carpeaux took his family to London early in 1871. They re
mained there formost of that year, and Carpeaux returned for
extended visits in 1872 and 1873. In England Carpeaux found
a clientele for his work, chiefly among persons with Bonapart
.
{
ist connections. At various times hemaintained several studios
::?'??
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"'i~~
'A'
inLondon, but the final execution in bronze or marble of most
.. . ....... -... ~'
M
of the works he produced there seems to have continued to be
' l , ... :
carried out largely by his assistants in France. Undoubtedly,
... ... . .
E..?.
access
to
was
in
of
Carpeaux's
English patronage
great help
tiding him over the financially difficult years immediately be
fore his death. However, despite his widow's shrewd manage
,~-r -~
ment of his atelier after 1875, a number of years were required
to erase the debts which had accumulated during his lifetime.
The various influences which contributed to the creation of
Carpeaux's sculpture are not too difficult to isolate and des
cribe. Foremost among them was an objectivity in the render
ing of anatomy and surface which must be described by that
notoriously imprecise term "realism." Carpeaux's variety of
this commodity had several sources-his experiences as a stu
dent in the atelier of Rude, where realism was insisted upon as
an antidote to the classicizing tendencies of the exhausted tra
dition stemming from Antonio Canova, and his contact in
Italywith the anatomical exactitude of Michaelangelo's sculp
ture. Rude also probably contributed to the almost exagger

..~~~~~~~~~~..

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

. .2'.

ated forcefulness of expression evident in some of Carpeaux's

the Ugolino-though
works-notably
perhaps the paintings
of Gericault and the early Delacroix played an even more sig
nificant role in such conceptions. Several of the important
works of Carpeaux's maturity-the
Flora, La Danse, and to a
lesser degree, the Four Parts of theEarth-are clearly indebted
to Rubens for the liveliness of their forms and frank physicality
of their presentation of opulent nudes. In all these sculptures
realistic detail has, however, been substituted for the idealiza
tions to be found inRubens's mythological works.
Carpeaux's portraits and the cabinet sculptures done to
ward the end of his career owe an obvious debt to the French
tradition of the seventeenth and, particularly, the eighteenth
centuries. In the portraits, movement is invariably suggested
by a turn of the head or shoulders, and especially inportraits of
women, this sense of movement is frequently reinforced by
complex swaths of drapery which form the lower terminations
of the sculptures. This device, which finds its ultimate source in
Bernini's portrait busts, had been frequently employed by
French sculptors. If the formal means of Carpeaux's portrait
busts are often closely dependent upon eighteenth-century
prototypes, his expressive aims were different. The almost uni
versal air of ingratiating cheerfulness assumed by the subjects
of eighteenth-century French portrait busts is frequently ex
changed for more pensive and introspective moods in Car
peaux's works of this kind. Furthermore, perhaps because they
include much realistically rendered detail, his portraits seem to
be less overtly flattering to the sitters than their predecessors of
the previous century. Several cabinet sculptures made by Car
peaux toward the end of his career are obviously indebted for
their subject matter and form to eighteenth-century pieces of
similar insouciant charm by Pigalle and Falconet.
Despite the diversity of his sources, Carpeaux, to a greater
degree thanmost of his contemporaries, developed a personal
style as a sculptor. In both form and subject matter his work
tends to follow rather closely the traditions of seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century European sculpture, though there is, in his
finished works, an insistance upon the careful rendering of sur
face details which brands them unmistakably as products of
their time. Despite the presence in his oeuvre of some small
portrait medallions in low relief, an interest in three-dimen
sionality and multiple points of view can also be cited as char
acteristic of his sculpture. Finally, Carpeaux's personal man
ner can be recognized in his treatment of drapery. Typically his
drapery is broken into complex patterns inwhich, in terms of
composition, the primary direction indicated by the folds is
102

frequently interrupted by breaks and shorter folds of opposing

directions. As a result Carpeaux's drapery assumes the form of
agitated patterns of softly rounded folds which lack strong
directional impulse.
If it seems fairly easy to dissect and describe Carpeaux's
sculptural style, it is much more difficult to place his work
securely within a historical continuum, in part, no doubt, be
cause the art of France in the nineteenth century remains im
perfectly known and understood. Although sculpture enjoyed
widespread popularity with the general public, in almost every
instance it seems to have followed, rather than led, the other
visual arts in that century. It was Carpeaux's return to the
sculptural traditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centu
ries which has been customarily cited as his primary contribu
tion to the history of sculpture, but a careful examination of
the evidence indicates that he was by no means the first artist,
or even the first sculptor, to exhibit such interests in his work.6
Carpeaux was essentially a traditionalist. His chief claim to
artistic prominence seems to lie in his creation of a recogniz
ably personal body of work of consistantly high quality in
which eccentricities of neither form nor subject matter were
allowed to intrude.Within the context of mid-nineteenth-cen
tury French sculpture, such an achievement is by no means to
be despised.
Carpeaux's career as a mature artist was comparatively
short, lasting only about fifteen years, from the creation of the
Ugolino group inRome in the late 1850s until he was overtaken
by his final illness in 1874. Much of his time was occupied
during those years by work on a few important projects. Car
peaux himself was productive and in the execution of his works
he was aided by assistants; nevertheless, his total oeuvre isnot
commissions, pub
large. His career was a public one-public
lic exhibitions at the Salons inParis and at theRoyal Academy
in London, and public sales of his work at auction during his
lifetime and from his studio after his death. On the evidence of
his biographies, it is obvious that Carpeaux had an extensive
correspondence with friends and patrons and that much of it
was preserved. The circumstances of the creation of some of
the terra-cotta sketches which never found fruition in finished
works may remain obscure, but virtually all of the completed
sculptures, and many of the unachieved projects, are well doc
umented. The only important exception seems to be themarble
bust of a woman (Figures 1and 4) which was recently acquired
by The Cleveland Museum of Art.7
Around this sculpture hover clouds of obscurity, some of
them perhaps purposely induced. To begin with the intrinsic

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Nk

10,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"1

A~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.
!
s

:li s

:.

:.
s

440__ ^

?::?''i
a

r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i~~~~~l'~~as

Ni

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Figure 6.Mrs. H. J. Turner.Marble,

H. 32 inches (81.5 cm.), 1871.
Carpeaux. The Tate Gallery, London.
.. _6~?
.

IN

evidence, the bust is signed and dated 1872. The carving of this
inscription, especially of the date, isnot very precise (Figure 5),
and its authenticity has been doubted. In her biography of her
father, Mme. Clement-Carpeaux states that themarble of this
composition that she knew, which belonged to a dealer in
Paris, was not dated.8 She further states that since her mother
did not know the subject of the bust, itmust have been executed
before her marriage toCarpeaux in 1869. The question is com
plicated by the fact that the bust now inCleveland was exhib
ited in Paris from April to July 1933 and at that time bore the
date 1872.9Mme. Clement-Carpeaux's book is dated 1934.
Favoring the authenticity of the signature and date on the
Cleveland bust are their close identity in form to other inscrip
tions on Carpeaux's sculptures.10 Furthermore, the style of the
Cleveland bust, while not incompatible with the date of 1868,
fits even more comfortably into his oeuvre if itwere made in
1872.11 It is closely related to several busts of women made in
the early seventies, particularly the bust of Mrs. H. J. Turner
(Figure 6) which is dated 1871.12
Another historical discrepancy exists between the bust now
inCleveland and that described by Mme. Clement-Carpeaux.
She says that the version she saw had been found by its owner
inDijon.13 The bust now inCleveland is said to have been sold
at public auction in Paris in 1920.14When itwas exhibited in
Paris in 1933, it belonged to the sons of the dealer Leon Helft.
Itwas subsequently in theDavid Weill collection before itwas
acquired by the Cleveland Museum.
How is one to explain these discrepancies between the bust
described byMme. Clement-Carpeaux and that now inCleve
land?Are there twomarble versions of this composition? Cer
tainly in some instances Carpeaux and his assistants are known
to have made more than one version of portrait busts, but if
another marble version of the Cleveland bust exists, it seems
never to have been published except inMme. Clement-Car
peaux's biography.15 The other possible explanations for these
discrepancies are either that Mme. Clement-Carpeaux had
seen the Cleveland bust but had forgotten that it is dated, that
she purposelv chose to ignore its date in her description of the
104

Figure 7. Bust of a Lady (Fanny Coleman?).

Plaster, H. 82 cm., ca. 1872. Carpeaux.
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
work, or that the date may have been added to the Cleveland
bust after Mme. Clement-Carpeaux saw it, but before itwas
exhibited in 1933.
That theCleveland bust is thework of Carpeaux can be dem
onstrated conclusively on the basis of a comparison with the
original plaster model of the composition (Figure 7), which
was purchased in 1909 by theNy Carlsberg Glyptotek inCo
penhagen directly from the Carpeaux heirs.16Although slight
differences are observable between the two versions, notably in
the attitudes of the heads, the design of theCleveland marble is
clearly based upon that of the Copenhagen plaster. In corre
spondence concerning the purchase of the plaster bust, Mme.
Clement-Carpeaux consistantly referred to its subject as "an
unknown Russian princess."17 She further stated that, to her
knowledge, no other version of the composition existed. It can
be presumed, therefore, that in 1909 she was unaware of any
marble version.
In recent years the title "Madame Coleman" has been at
tached to this composition. This titlemay first have been used
when the marble was sold at auction in 1920, but the earliest
verifiable instance of its use was in the exhibition catalog of
1933, where the bust was called "Madame Colman." A year
later,Mme. Clement-Carpeaux referred to the bust as repre
senting "Mme. Colmann," implying a German origin of the
lady's surname. When the bust was sold at auction in 1974, its
sitter was described as "Madame Coleman." Who might this
Madame Coleman be? Depending upon its spelling, the name
can be either of English or German origin. If the date of 1872
inscribed on the Cleveland bust is correct, itwould be most
likely that she was English. As has been mentioned, Carpeaux
spent most of the year 1871 inEngland and was there again for
shorter visits in 1872 and 1873. He carried out a number of
commissions for English clients and maintained studios at
several different London addresses at various times.
If we presume that Madame Coleman was English, the
choice of possible sitters for this bust is sharply limited. There
seems to have been only one English family of this name of
sufficient means to have made the commissioning of a marble
portrait bust from a famous sculptor likely. They were theCol
mans of mustard fame, persons of similar circumstances to
those of the Turners, who were among Carpeaux's most im

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

~~* it \ _,e

*x_
-

by~~~~~~~~~~~I

~ ~~
-

portant English patrons. Unfortunately, there seems to have

been, around 1870, no female member of this family of an age
similar to that of thewoman in the Cleveland bust. There was
in England, however, another woman of this surname who,
though probably neither rich nor famous in 1870, does seem to
be an excellent candidate for the distinction of having sat to
Carpeaux for this portrait. She was the actress Fanny Cole
man.18 Her birth date is variously recorded but probably oc
curred in 1833. She would thus have been in her later thirties at
the time this bust was probably made, an age consistant with
that of the sitter as represented by Carpeaux in the Cleveland
bust. Miss Coleman's theatrical career was long and varied,
but unusual in one respect. She achieved her greatest success
toward the end of her life, playing aristocratic old ladies,
among them theDuchess of Berwick in the original production
ofWilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and theCountess of Brock
lehurst in The Admirable Crichton in 1902. She retired from the
stage in 1907, when amatinee was given in her honor, and died
on March 2, 1919. 19Thus the date of her death also accords

-~~~~~~~~~~*.'

i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

i;?

_.ti

pare *Be 9 _.

~
------------------

I-

..
.....
:l::. :e::
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I
i nlm <

well with that given for the appearance of themarble bust now
inCleveland on the Paris art market. Not only do the dates of
her birth and death agree with what is known about the Cleve
land bust, but there also exist in the Theatre Museum at the
Victoria and Albert Museum photographs of Fanny Coleman,
made in 1864, which bear a sufficiently close resemblance to
themarble bust to indicate strongly-if not decisively-that
it
was indeed this actress who was Carpeaux's model for the bust
(Figure 8).
Under what circumstances might Fanny Coleman have sat
to Carpeaux? A summary of her theatrical career indicates
that the years around 1870 were professionally rather lean
ones. Thus, almost certainly she did not commission her own
portrait to be carved. As has been mentioned already, Car
peaux's marriage to Louise deMontfort was, after its first year,
far from peaceful. Beginning in 1870, he repeatedly accused his
wife of adultery, and about a year before his death in 1875 they
were finally separated. No clear evidence is offered by any of
Carpeaux's biographers that he was unfaithful to his wife, and
105

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Photographs, 1864.

Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

limpj...

"

in factMme. Clement-Carpeaux states decisively that he was

not.20 She also indicates, however, that Carpeaux's relation
ship with several of the sitters of the busts made toward the end
of his lifewas more thanmerely professional.2 A close person
al attachment between Carpeaux and Fanny Coleman would
go far to explain the existance of the bust now in Cleveland.
Unfortunately no documents have been published which
would support such a hypothesis. If any ever existed, they have
probably been lost or destroyed. Apparently the only clue
which remains to suggest that Fanny Coleman and Carpeaux
were lovers is an anonymous, handwritten note appended to
the entry for the plaster version of the bust in a copy of the 1910
catalog of theNy Carlsberg Glyptotek. It states that this bust
could not be exhibited or mentioned during the lifetime of the
artist's widow "probably because she was jealous."22
Mme. Clement-Carpeaux's biography of her father is by far
the most complete and best documented which exists on the
sculptor. It is, however, a far from dispassionate chronicle.
The author clearly indicates that it isher objective to praise her
father as a man and as an artist and to defend her mother
against charges of adultery and neglect of her dying husband.
To what degree, if any, Mme. Clement-Carpeaux may have
sacrificed objectivity for the attainment of these ends would be
impossible to determine without a thorough re-examination of
the surviving documents, but the fervor of her arguments does
106

suggest at least the possibility that had she suspected the bust
now in Cleveland represented her father's mistress, she may
have purposely distorted the information which she supplied
about it in order to divert the attention of future students of his
work from its true subject and significance.
The busts inCleveland and Copenhagen are among themost
sympathetic female portraits inCarpeaux's oeuvre. The sitter
was certainly not his most beautiful subject, and Carpeaux's
commitment to realism demanded that he suggest through the
uneven modeling of her cheeks that thewoman portrayed was
no longer youthful. She is shown, asMme. Clement-Carpeaux
formal female attire of about
remarks, en grand dcollete-the
1870-with her coiffure ornamented with braids and flowers,
both probably false, and a shawl complexly draped around her
shoulders. Despite the formality of her dress, the hauteur
which characterizes some of Carpeaux's portraits is here ab
sent. In the Copenhagen version the half smile and diverted
glance suggest the vulnerability of the subject to human emo
tions or to the vicissitudes of life. Perhaps because of the nature
of thematerial, the smile of themarble bust seems ambiguous.
Is the sitter amused or defensive? In either case, her expression
retains an immediacy which suggests close observation of a
particular personality.
Even before he went to Rome, Carpeaux had begun to em
ploy assistants to help in the execution of his marbles. It is
doubtful that his personal participation in the carving of his
sculptures was usually very great. He would model his work in
clay, from which a plaster cast was made which served as the
guide for the execution of finished versions in other materials.
Undoubtedly he approved the execution of all works leaving
his studio, and he may have added a few finishing touches to
the marbles, but it is doubtful that he generally did more. In
one case, the posthumous portrait of Napoleon III, it was
specified that themaster himself should execute it,but no other
instance of this requirement is recorded. The Cleveland bust is
executed with great finesse. If, as has been postulated here, it
represents the English actress Fanny Coleman and she was
Carpeaux's mistress, it seems likely that themarble as well as
the plaster may have been carried out by him inLondon with
less assistance from others than was his custom. Certainly the
marble as it exists is both a sensitive depiction of a particular
personality and a superbly executed example of a portrait bust
of the most compositionally and iconographically complex
variety.
HENRY H. HAWLEY

Curator of Post-Renaissance Decorative Arts

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

1. The biographical information contained in this article isderived

almost entirely from Louise Clement-Carpeaux, La Verite sur
2 vols. (Paris, 1934-1935).
et la Vie de J. B. Carpeaux,
in one of which
the
2. The Bust of a Chinese
exists in two variants,
costume
and the hair are very sketchily
The second
is
described.
of Art owns a reduction
in
entirely finished. The Cleveland Museum
in 1872. See Sur le
executed
plaster of the finished variant probably
11
traces de Jean-Baptiste
Paris, Grand
Palais, March
Carpeaux,
atelier. CMA
5, 1975, no. 335. It bears the seal of Carpeaux's
May
72.49. Plaster, ca. 1872, 14 x 10-3/16 x 5-5/8 inches (35.5 x 25.8 x 14.2
I'Oeuvre

John L. Sever
1827-1875.
Purchase
French,
cm.). J. B. Carpeaux,
ance Fund. The sex of this subject was changed when the model was

utilized for the fountain group.

3. A large part of the second volume of Mme. Clement-Carpeaux's
the author
On this point,
is taken up with this question.
biography
had denied
his
since Carpeaux
herself was necessarily
involved,
of all his wife's children except his eldest son.
paternity
4. Carpeaux
had protracted
disputes with his parents and his broth
er over money matters,
with
regard to the atelier at
particularly
in the late
under contract
Auteuil which his brother Emile managed
seems to have been
60s and early 70s. Another
source of difficulty
La
that the execution
of some official commissions,
particularly
Danse, was more costly than had been estimated.

5. The best description of Carpeaux's studio practice is the chapter

by Annie

Braunwald

and Anne

Middleton

Wagner

in Jeanne

L.

Wasserman, ed., Metamorphoses inNineteenth-Century Sculpture,

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, November 19, 1975-Janu
ary 7, 1976, pp. 108-143.
seems to be little evidence
in Carpeaux's
work of the influ
French
ence of seventeenthand eighteenth-century
sculpture until
Car
after his Roman
de Poncheville,
See Andre Mabille
sojourn.
1921), where several early works
peaux Inconnu (Paris and Bruxelles,
are reproduced.
In Baudelaire's
The Salon of 1859 mention
ismade
6. There

of influenceof seventeenth- and eighteenth-century sculpture in the

works

of Albert

Ernest

Carrier-Belleuse,

Alexandre

and

Oliva,

Joseph Prouha, and inpainting reflectionsof the eighteenth century

can be found as early
Pierre Bernhard Diaz.

as the 1840s

in the work

of such masters

as

7. CMA75.5 Bust of a Lady (FannyColeman?).Marble, 1872, 32-3/4

x 23 x 15-1/2 inches
1827-1875. Purchase

(83.2 x 58.5 x 39.4 cm.). J. B. Carpeaux,

John L. Severance
Fund. Ex collections:

French
Fanny

Coleman(?), London; (Leon Helft, Paris), David Weill, Paris;

Paris). Of the well over one hundred works of Car
(Heim Gallery,
listed by Lami, there are only a handful which cannot be firmly

11. In addition to theBust ofMrs. Turnermentioned below, that in

Cleveland
Demarcay

is especially
close in form and style to the busts of Mme.
of 1872, Mme. Moret
of 1873, and La Baronne
Sipiere of

1874. See Edouard Sarradin, "Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux," Les Arts,

no. 13 (October 1912), pp. 22-32.
12. Ronald Alley, The Foreign Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture,
Tate Gallery Catalogs (London, 1959),pp. 27-28.The original plas
In
ter for this bust is in the Ny Carlsberg
Glyptotek,
Copenhagen.
of Mrs.
a second, more
1872 Carpeaux
made
informal,
portrait
Turner which
de Beaux-Arts,
Valenciennes.
See
is now at the Musee

Radcliffe, plate xi.

13.

i, p. 223. No

date

is given or implied by Mme.

it
June 10, 1974, lot 35, where the Cleveland
bust appeared,
Galliera,
sold at Paris, Hotel Drouot, May 8, 1920, lot 72.
had been previously
The only sale of that place and date which has come to light is the
bust
sale of the Madame
Hennecort
and the Carpeaux
Collection,
was not lot 72 of that sale. It seems likely the information
about the
correct but that a slight error,
sale of the bust in 1920 is essentially
of date, has been made. Unfortunately
it has not been pos
probably
bust prior to its
sible thus far to trace the history of the Cleveland
in 1933.
exhibition

15. The firstpublication of any version of this composition seems to

have

been Carl V. Petersen,

"J. B. Carpeaux

og haus

1964),

(Copenhagen,

p. 100, no. 586,

inv. no. 1566. See also note

sian

Princess"

has

been

consistently

used

by

the Ny

Carlsberg

in 1964 (see note 16), Rostrup

mentions
that Mme.
Clement-Car
Colmann."
peaux had identified her as "Madame
18. Biographical
on Fanny Coleman
is derived
information
largely
from John Parker, ed., Who's Who in the Theatre,
I (Boston,
1912).

19. Obituary, The Times, London, March 4, 1919.

20.

i, p. 231
21. In his last years Carpeaux made busts of several friends, such as
those of Dumas
fils and the painter Bruno Cherier. At least one such
dated 1871, may be of a sitter whose
bust, that of Mlle. Gueroult,

relationship toCarpeaux was especially close.

from Haavard

Rostrup,

February

de la Vie sous la IIIe

Republique,April-July 1933, p. 110, no. 853.

10. See, for example,Anthony Radcliffe, Jean-BaptisteCarpeaux, I
Maestri della Scultura (Milan, 1966),plate III,inwhich a terra-cotta
relief of 1872 bears a signature
and date of almost
identical
even to the breaking
of the otherwise
uniform
lower margin
tail of the numeral
"7."

15.

Glyptotek to describe this composition, though in his catalog entry

22. Letter

Le Decor

iNy

17. Letter fromHaavard Rostrup, February 2, 1976.The title "Rus

identifiedand dated.
des Arts Decoratifs,

arbejder

Carlsberg Glyptotek," Fra Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteks Samlinger, II

(Copenhagen, 1922), p. 50, inwhich the plaster now inCopenhagen
is illustrated.
16. Haavard Rostrup, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Moderne Skulptur

peaux

8. I, p. 223.
9. Paris, Musee

Clement-Carpeaux

for this discovery.

14. According to the catalog of Ader, Picard, Tajan, Paris, Palais

form,
by the

This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Tue, 18 Aug 2015 19:17:11 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

2, 1976.