Sculptor
Carpeaux Jean-Baptiste
1827-1875
Three masterpieces:
The dance at the Opera of Paris, the decoration of the Flore lodge, at the Louvre, The fountain of the four parts of the world, avenue of the Observatoire, are the proof that CARPEAUX is one of the best French sculptor of the 19th century.
The rest of his carrier shows his lightning and no conformist genius. Hard worker, fiery and tormented, he made in about twenty years (beginning in 1855) a lot of drawings, paintings, sketches, plaster and terracotta rough sketches, busts, statues and marble and bronze groups.
At age of eleven, he came to Paris with his family. In 1842, a cousin, named Victor Liet, helped him to enter at the Petite Ecole, where he learnt the art of sculpture with Davioud, Garnier, Chapu and Carriès.
Later on, he will have Dalou and Rodin as students.