Le Génie de la Danse

Details

CAST FROM THE MODEL BY JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX (FRENCH, 1827-1875)
Le Génie de la Danse
The naturalistic base signed JB Carpeaux, dated 1872 and stamped with the Propriété Carpeaux foundry cachet, mounted on a marble socle
brown patinated bronze
54.5 cm high; 61 cm. high overall

Special notice

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,001. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

Lot Essay

In 1865, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was commissioned to model one of four monumental reliefs for the façade of Charles Garnier's Opéra in Paris. The allegorical group depicting the Spirit or Genius of Dance surrounded by Dancing Bacchantes and a putto was completed four years later. Carpeaux's masterpiece met with strong criticism as the dancing figures, in particular the fleshy bacchantes, were deemed far too suggestive for a public monument. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War stilled the controversy and the relief remained on the façade of the building until 1964 when it was removed to the Louvre, owing to the general deterioration of the surface. In 1989 the relief was moved to musée d'Orsay where it still is today.

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