Sculpture
Bust of a Lady (possibly Fanny Coleman)
SculpturePortrait
Details
- Author / creator
- Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827–1875)
- Object type
- Sculpture
- Date or period
- 1872
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 83.2 × 58.5 × 39.4 cm
- Primary material
- Marble
- Place of origin
- France
- Acquisition method
- Bequest
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by the Friends of the Ashcombe Museum, 1975
About this object
Abandoning the strict frontality and symmetry of the neoclassical style, Carpeaux was instead inspired by French portrait busts of the 1600s and 1700s. This bust probably depicts Fanny Coleman, an English actress with whom Carpeaux may have had a romantic relationship. The turn of the head and the undulating drapery infuse the figure with a sense of drama. Patronized by Napoleon III, Carpeaux created the celebrated figural group La Danse for the facade of the Opera Garnier in Paris, a work renowned for its sensual nudes, but denounced by contemporaries as an affront to public decency.
Materials and technique
Marble
Signature and marks
inscribed on base: J. Bte CARPEAUX 1872.
