Beschreibung:

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux French, 1827-1875 Les Trois Graces (The Three Graces) Signed JB Carpeaux, stamped with the PROPRIETE CARPEAUX eagle and inscribed PROPRIETE / CARPEAUX Bronze with brown patina Height 31 1/2 inches; Together with a Faux-Marble Base, height 42 1/8 inches Related literature: Michel Poletti and Alain Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Sculpteur: Catalogue Raisonne de l'Oeuvre Edite, Paris: Editions de l'Amateur, 2003, p. 101, SE 23 Les Trois Graces (the Three Graces) figure prominently in Greek mythology as companions of Aphrodite and goddesses of beauty, charm, fertility and other feminine qualities. The group's symbolic connotations and formal intricacies rendered them a beloved subject for artists well into the nineteenth century. Carpeaux's interpretation looks to prior examples by painters like Botticelli and Cranach, and by sculptors like Canova and Pradier. The present composition draws most heavily, however, upon Carpeaux's own La Danse (The Dance), a larger and more complex work commissioned for the facade of Paris' Opera Garnier. Upon its unveiling in July 1869, critics took issue with La Danse's perceived obscenity, epitomized in the highly realistic and sensual female nudes. On the eve of August 27, an unknown assailant threw an ink bottle at the sculpture, staining the hip of the leftmost Grace. Only the onset of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and the artist's subsequent death in 1875 impeded the sculpture's immediate removal from the Opera. Attempting to recoup his immense financial losses from time and funds invested in La Danse, Carpeaux and his studio designed a series of nine reductions and reconfigurations, including Les Trois Graces. The original model for the latter is in the collection of the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. C
Overall good condition. Some minor wear to the patina and light scratches.