'Flore Accroupie', A Marble Figure of Crouching Flora

PROPERTY OF THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART SOLD TO BENEFIT FUTURE ACQUISITIONS

Details

'Flore Accroupie', A Marble Figure of Crouching Flora

CARVED FROM A MODEL BY CARPEAUX, FRENCH, 19TH CENTURY

signed 'JB. Carpeaux', with museum no. 'A. 6/64.52-2'
19 7/8in. (50.5cm.) high

Literature

V. Beyer & A. Braunwald, Sur les Traces de Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Paris, 1975, no. 269
J. Lovett, A Romance With Realism The Art of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Williamstown, 1989, p.18, no.6
J. Munk, Catalogue French Sculpture, Copenhagen, 1993, p.132-133, no. 80

Further details

*This lot may be exempt from sales tax, as set forth in the Sales
Tax Notice at the front of this catalogue.

Lot Essay

The present figure of Flora is related to the sculptor's relief for the Southern facade of the Louvre, The Pavillon de Flore, which was commissioned by Napoleon III in 1863.
In sculpting this freestanding figure, Carpeaux borrowed the pose from the antique figure of Crouching Venus, with the right arm raised over the head. The face is that of Anna Foucart, the daughter of Carpeaux's boyhood friend and a girl whose features the sculptor used throughout his career.
The full size marble version (1873) was commissioned by Carpeaux's English patron Mr. Turner and is now in the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon. The original plaster model of 1870 is in Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. The Carpeaux atelier authorized editions in terracotta, bronze and marble.