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Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse
1824-1887
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, known as the “most prolific and versatile sculptor of his time” as well as “the consummate decorative sculptor of the nineteenth century”, was born Carrier de Belleuse to a genteel but impoverished Parisian family. When his father deserted them, the 13-year-old Carrier went to work as an apprentice, first to a stone chiseller, then to Jacques-Henry Fauconnier, the goldsmith who trained Antoine-Louis Barye. The sculptor David d'Angers arranged his entrance into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but Carrier disliked its static formalism and elitism and departed for the Petit Ecole, the specialized school for decorative arts both Auguste Rodin and Aime-Jules Dalou would later attend.
As a student, Carrier-Belleuse began producing statuettes for commercial manufacturers as well as fine art pieces. In 1850, he made his debut at the Paris Salon. By then, he was well enough known as a decorative sculptor to be hired by the Minton China Works in England . Returning to Paris in 1855, he began specializing in small bronzes, like paired statuettes of Michelangelo and Raphael, essentially creating a new style, sometimes called Neo-Rococo, which produced works of color and vivacity that made academic pieces look stuffy.
In 1863, Carrier-Belleuse had his artistic breakthrough when Emperor Napoleon III brought his marble group, “Bacchante with a Herm of Dionysius”. In 1867, his “Messiah” won a Medal of Honor at the Salon and he scored a major success at the Paris International Exposition with, “Angelica Chained to the Rock”, considered an audacious revelation for its frank sensuality and realistic strain. He was also in demand for his portrait busts; eventually, more than 200 Parisians sat for him. He created works commemorating most of the major figures of his time, like Honore Daumier and Gustave Dore, specializing in fresh, crisply defined likenesses that abandoned the smooth, idealized features of academic works.
Possessed of 8 children to support, Carrier-Belleuse knew that, in order to turn a profit, a sculptor must sell more than one copy of a work. Scholar Ruth Butler writes, “Carrier was probably the first sculptor to maintain a separate atelier for the sole purpose of producing multiple copies of his work”, a strategy adopted by the most famous of his employees, Auguste Rodin. Carrier-Belleuse was also one of the first artists clever enough to sell directly to the public. Butler states:
Rodin did . . . get a first-rate apprenticeship in entrepreneurial skills . . . Carrier was his model as to how to run an atelier. In his employ Rodin learned every facet of making and selling sculpture. The lessons he absorbed were fundamental to his eventual development as a supremely successful artist. |
In 1876, Carrier-Bellesuse was asked to be the art director of national porcelain manufacture at Sevres, a position he would retain until his death. Under his leadership, Sevres, which had fallen into mediocrity, again became the leader in porcelain art. One of the things that made Carrier-Belleuse both popular and prolific was his willingness to devote the same attention to his “decorative” work that he did to his “fine art”. He felt that the middle and lower classes also deserved beauty in their lives.
A man's real legacy can be difficult to evaluate. When Carrier-Belleuse died in 1887, he received a state funeral and the sale of the contents of his studio took a full 5 days. But it may say more about the man chiefly remembered for his employment of Rodin, that his 8 children adoringly referred to him as “Papa-Bon” and that every one of them chose to emulate him by becoming an artist.
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