Albert Carrier Belleuse

ALBERT CARRIER BELLEUSE (France, 1824-1887).
"La source", c. 1860.
Broce with brown patina and beige marble base.
Signed.
Measurements: 91,5 cm (height).
Bronze sculpture representing an idealized female figure, with a slender body and elegant pose, in a graceful and contemplative attitude. The work is part of the academic tradition of the nineteenth century, with clear influences of neoclassicism and romanticism, especially for its detailed anatomical modeling and its emphasis on ideal beauty.
The figure holds an amphora or decorative pitcher, from which water seems to pour, suggesting a possible symbolic allusion to a nymph, a muse or an allegory of water. The treatment of the drapery that partially covers her body is meticulous, revealing the forms of the female body in an exaltation of classical naturalism. The texture of the polished bronze and the subtly inclined posture of the figure, with her head tilted to one side and her gaze lowered, lend an air of melancholy and serenity.
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) was one of the most prolific and renowned sculptors of the 19th century, achieving great success during the Second Empire thanks to the personal support of Napoleon III. He began his artistic training in 1837 in the workshop of the chiseler Bauchery, and soon after entered the workshop of the goldsmith Jacques Henri Fauconnier. Thanks to the mediation of François Arago, he met the famous sculptor David d'Angers, who facilitated his admission to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1840. He soon attracted the attention of important Parisian foundry houses such as Barbedienne and Denière, for whom he designed decorative objects such as candelabra, clocks and fireplace ornaments. In 1848 he received his first public commission: a statue of the actress Mademoiselle Rachel singing La Marseillaise.
Between 1851 and 1855 he lived in England, in the town of Stoke-on-Trent, where he directed the school of modeling and drawing at the prestigious Mintons porcelain factory. Upon his return to Paris, he established his workshop in the rue de la Tour d'Auvergne and from 1857 he participated regularly in the Salon, achieving great notoriety with works in marble such as The Bacchante (1863), Angelica (1866) or Hébé asleep (1869). His sculptural group Le Messie, exhibited in 1867, won him the Medal of Honor for sculpture and was acquired by the State for the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul.
Carrier-Belleuse also distinguished himself for his terracotta busts, of strong eighteenth-century inspiration, producing portraits of prominent figures of his time such as Napoleon III, Renan, Thiers, Delacroix, Daumier and Marguerite Bellanger, as well as historical and cultural figures such as Mary Stuart, Shakespeare and Mozart.
He directed an important workshop in which many renowned sculptors were trained, among them Alexandre Falguière, Jules Dalou, and above all Auguste Rodin, who joined him as his assistant in 1864. In 1873 he participated in the decoration of the Palais Garnier (Paris Opera), where he made the monumental torches of the great hall and the caryatids of the fireplace in the foyer. Finally, in 1875 he was appointed artistic director of the Manufacture de Sèvres, from where he promoted an aesthetic renewal through an innovative production line of ceramics and vases.