Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875) - Lot 136

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875) Portrait of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) Model created in 1871 Plaster proof Titled "GEROME Inscribed on the left side of the pedestal "Al sommo / Pittore Gérome / JB Carpeaux Rome". H. 61 cm Minor accidents, wear and scratches At the beginning of 1871, in a few posing sessions, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux immortalized the figure of his friend, the painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, then both in exile in England to escape the troubles of the Commune in Paris. Admiring his friend's work, the painter wrote to Édouard-Désiré Fromentin in 1878: "From the first session, the work was so well in place, so well constructed, so right, that it was already strikingly true. The bronze version presented at the Salon of 1872 was enthusiastically received by critics, who praised the figure's combination of realism and romanticism, thanks in particular to the treatment of the hair and the cut of the bust. Related work : Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Buste de Jean-Léon Gérôme, after 1871, patinated plaster, H. 61 x W. 26 x D. 24 cm, Paris, Petit Palais, inv. PPS948. Related literature : - Michel Poletti, Alain Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, sculpteur. Catalog raisonné de l'œuvre édité, Paris, Les Expressions contemporaines, 2003, model listed under no. BU 32, p.134; - Edouard Papet, James David Drapper, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875), un sculpteur pour l'empire, Paris, Co-édition musée d'Orsay-Gallimard, 2014, models listed under n°154 and 155.