Albert Ernest Carrier Belleuse

ALBERT ERNEST CARRIER BELLEUSE (France, 1824-1887).
"Female bust with roses", c. 1870.
Terracotta and wooden base.
Signed.
Measurements: 57 x 23 x 26 cm.

This terracotta bust represents a young woman with idealized features, inscribed in the refined and sensual aesthetic characteristic of Carrier-Belleuse's production. The work shows close affinities with a model conserved in the Musée d'Orsay (inv. no. RF 3718), described as "Jeune femme au chapeau orné d'épis de blé", although the present version introduces significant variations: the figure lacks a hat, replacing it with an elaborate hairstyle adorned with roses, a motif that is also repeated in the chest area, instead of the ears of wheat of the Parisian model. These iconographic modifications do not alter the allegorical reading suggested by various scholars, who have interpreted this type as a possible personification of summer within a series dedicated to the four seasons. In this sense, the replacement of the ears of corn with roses emphasizes a more ornamental character. The soft and vibrant modeling, visible in the treatment of the skin and in the delicacy of the floral details, demonstrates Carrier-Belleuse's technical virtuosity in working with terracotta, a material that allowed him greater expressive freedom.

French sculptor and draughtsman trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, recognized for his neoclassical sculptures of great realism and delicacy. It is a balanced work where the representation of movement is an essential point of the work itself. In his first stage of training he was a disciple of the medalist David d'Angers, later moving to England, to return to France definitively in 1855. He made his debut at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1851, but did not become famous until 1861, when he presented his group "Salve Regina", a work that won him the third medal. In 1866 he obtained the first medal with his work "Angelica", and in 1867 he obtained the medal of honor of the Salon, in addition to being decorated with the Legion of Honor. In his sculpture workshop, he worked for a long time as the marble artist Auguste Rodin. In 1876 he was appointed director of artistic works at the National Porcelain Factory in Sèvres and in 1884 he published "L'application de la figure humaine à la decoration et à l'ornementation -industrielles", a collection of two hundred drawings in which he depicts anthropomorphic objects based on his ideas about the decorative arts. Some of his works can be found in the Prado Museum.