French sculptor and designer. He was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the 19th century, producing portrait busts, monuments and ideal works, as well as exploiting to the full the commercial opportunities offered by developing technology for the mass production of small-scale sculpture and decorative wares. His style ranged from the unembellished Realism of his male portraits to the neo-Baroque exuberance of his architectural decoration, and his art is particularly associated with the amiable opulence of the Second Empire. He signed his works A. Carrier until c. 1868, thereafter adopting the name Carrier-Belleuse.

Carrier-Belleuse began a three-year apprenticeship with a goldsmith at the age of 13, a training that gave him a lifelong sensitivity to intricate surfaces. In 1840 David d’Angers sponsored his entry to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, but his straitened financial circumstances led him to study decorative arts at the Petite Ecole. This left him free to produce small models for such commercial manufacturers of porcelain and bronze as Michel Aaron, Auguste Lemaire, Vittoz and Paillard, who were beginning to flourish in the 1840s. Few examples of his work of this period are identifiable. By 1850 he was in England, employed as a designer at the Minton ceramic factory, though it is not clear if the revolutionary political events of 1848 were the cause of his departure from France. In addition to the many decorative objects and statuettes that he modelled for Minton, such as Seahorse with Shell (1855; London, V&A), he supplied models for ceramics and metalwork to other English companies, including such Staffordshire-based firms as Wedgwood and William Brownfield & Sons. In 1855 he returned to France but continued to collaborate with English firms until his death.

From 1857 Carrier-Belleuse regularly exhibited large-scale sculpture at the Salon. His first important success was in 1863 when Napoleon III bought the life-size marble Bacchante with a Herm of Dionysus (Paris, Jard. Tuileries). He often repeated the theme of the beguiling female nude, notably in Sleeping Hebe (marble, 1869; Paris, Mus. d’Orsay). As in the work of his contemporary Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, the neo-Baroque opulence of these statues is tempered by a strain of closely observed Realism.

Carrier-Belleuse also produced religious statuary, notably the Messiah (marble, 1867; Paris, St Vincent-de-Paul), which earned him the Médaille d’Honneur, and a number of ambitious public monuments, including General Massena (bronze, 1867; Nice, Place Massena) and Alexandre Dumas père (bronze, 1884; Villers-Cotterêt, Rue Alexandre Dumas). He supplied monuments abroad, and the large number of works by him in Argentina, including the marble monument to General St Martin (1879) in Buenos Aires Cathedral, raises the possibility that he might have maintained a workshop there to execute his designs.

Carrier-Belleuse was one of many sculptors to benefit from Baron Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris, begun during the Second Empire (1851–70), although in 1870 he was in Brussels working on the decoration of the Bourse and was therefore spared the privations of the siege of Paris in the following year. He contributed to the embellishment of the Louvre, the Tribune du Commerce, the Théâtre de la Renaissance, the Banque de France and Charles Garnier’s Opéra. His magnificent electrotyped torchères (1873; in situ) for the grand staircase of the Opéra, each with its three over-life-size figures derived from the work of such 16th-century sculptors as Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon, perfectly illustrate Carrier-Belleuse’s talent for combining historicist styling with the most recent technical innovations.

In his many portrait busts, Carrier-Belleuse contributed to the reaction against the static poses and idealizing tendencies of Neo-classicism. He preferred to draw his inspiration from the 18th-century tradition of lively Realism, and in such lifelike male portraits as the bust of Honoré Daumier (patinated plaster, c. 1865–70; Versailles, Château) he used contemporary dress. Among his few court commissions are two portraits of Napoleon III (e.g. patinated plaster, 1864; Paris, Carnavalet); most of his sitters, however, were well-known artists, writers and politicians, often drawn from his circle of friends.

A number of his elegant female portraits were reworked as fantasy busts, the features of Marguerite Bellanger, for instance, reappearing in the guises of Diana (tinted plaster; Paris, Martin de Nord priv. col.) and Winter (plaster; Paris, Mus. A. Déc.). The basic cast would often be varied by changing accessories, costumes or patinas. His portraits of historical figures include a statuette of Michelangelo (bronze, 1855; Berlin, Bodemus.) and a miniature portrait bust of the same artist (silvered version, c. 1860; New York, Met.) and are distinguished by the high quality of their chasing in examples from the artist’s studio. Carrier-Belleuse sold reproduction rights to commercial manufacturers who executed many of these works in metal, terracotta, ceramic and marble without such careful attention to finish.

Carrier-Belleuse produced his own terracotta editions of gallant themes in the Rococo spirit, sometimes reductions of his Salon exhibits. Statuettes and groups were cast in moulds and then reworked while still wet to ensure a fresh, crisp surface. These pieces were sold by the artist, sometimes at auction. A similar diversity of themes and media characterized his applied designs. Supported by his reputation as a serious sculptor, he executed lavish one-off pieces, for instance a silvered bronze chimney-piece (1866) for the mansion of the courtesan and patron Païva, on the Champs-Elysées, Paris. He also continued to collaborate with commercial manufacturers to exploit the opportunities inherent in mass production, devoting as much care to the design of such a mass-produced object as his zinc clockcase (e.g. 1867; London, V&A) as to a unique de luxe one.

In order to sustain his many activities, Carrier-Belleuse maintained a busy studio, in which some of the leading sculptors of the next generation, including Auguste Rodin, Jules Dalou and Alexandre Falguière, learnt to appreciate the value of the applied arts and the benefits of working in series, editions and variations.

In 1876 Carrier-Belleuse was made artistic director of the Sèvres porcelain manufactory to reform what were seen at the time as the aesthetic excesses of the previous decades. He devoted himself to revitalizing Sèvres with dozens of new designs, such as the ‘Vase Carrier-Belleuse’ (e.g. 1883; Paris, Hôtel du Sénat). In 1884 he published L’Application de la figure humaine à la decoration et à l’ornementation industrielles, a collection of 200 designs of anthropomorphic objects, which underlined his belief that since the human figure was traditionally the focus of art, its application to everyday objects would elevate their status. In the same year he was made an officer of the Légion d’honneur for his services to the decorative arts.


WORKS
AMIENS, Musee de Picardie. ANGOULEME, Musee des Beaux Arts. BEAUVAIS, Mus. dép. de l’Oise. BERLIN, SMPK, Sculpture-Galllery – Musikinstrumenten-Musee. BESANÇON, Musee. Comptois. BORDEAUX, Musee des Beaux Art. BOSTON, Museum Fine Arts. BRÜSSEL, MRBAB. – Bourse. – Cimetière Laeken. CALAIS, Musee des Beaux Arts. CHALONS-SUR-MARNE, Musee municiplal. CHAMBERY, Musee des Beaux Arts. CHAPEL HILL/N.C., Ackland AM. CHICAGO, Art Institute CLEVELAND/Ohio, Mus. of Art. COMPIEGNE, Château Vivenel. DIJON, MBA. – Mus. Magnin. DOUAI, Mus. de la Chartreuse. GOLDENDALE/Wash., Maryhill Mus. of Art. HAMBURG, MKG. HOUSTON, MFA. LAON, Mus. mun. LILLE, MBA. LIMOGES, Mus. Dubouché. LONDON, Bethnal Green Mus. LOS ANGELES, County Mus. of Art. LÜTTICH, MBA. MARSEILLE, MBA. MELBOURNE, NG of Victoria. MINNEAPOLIS, Minneapolis Inst. of Arts. NANTES, Château. NIMES, MAH. PARIS, MAD. – Mus. Carnavalet. – Mus. Frédéric Masson. – Orsay. – Mus. du Petit Pal. – Mus. Rodin. – Fontaines du Théâtre-Franç. – Jardin des Tuileries. – Louvre. POITIERS, Mus. Ste-Croix. PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island School of Design Mus. of Art. SAN FRANCISCO, FA Mus. ST-ETIENNE, MAH. ST-OMER, Mus. de l’Hôtel Sandelin. ST. PETERSBURG, Ermitage. SEVRES, Mus. nat. de Céramique. SOISSONS, Mus. mun. TARBES, MBA. TOURCOING, MBA. TOURNAI, MBA. TRIEST, Civ. Mus. Revoltella. TROYES, MBA. VERSAILLES, Mus. Nat. du Château. WARSCHAU, MN. WASHINGTON/D.C., NG of Art.
ARTIST´S WRITINGS
Et. de figures appliquées à la décoration, 1866; L’application de la figure humaine à la décoration et à l’ornementation industrielle (200 Zchngn), 1884.


EXHIBITIONS
Paris: 1851-88 Salon; 1867 WA / 1862 London: WA.


BIBLIOGRAPHY
ThB6, 1912. Lami I, 1914; DBF VII, 1956; Bénézit II, 1976; Mackay, 1977; Marchal/Wintrebert, 1987; Kjellberg, 1987; Gesualdo/Biglione/Santos I, 1988; Atterbury/Batkin, 1990; Dict. de la sculpt., P. 1992; DA V, 1996. – A.Ségard, Albert C.-B. 1824-1887, P. 1928; Luc Benoist, La sculpt. franç., P. 1945; Tardy, Porcelaines, 1967; H.W. Janson, ArtB 50:1968, 278-280; J.E. Hargrove, Minneapolis inst. of arts bull. 61:1974, 28-43; T.P. Lee, Houston MFA bull. 4:1974(4)70-73; J.E.Hargrove, Rev. du Louvre et des mus. de France 26:1976(5-6)411-424; ead., The life and work of Albert C., Diss. 1975, N.Y. 1977; ead., Mon. hist. de la France 102:1979(April)69-76 (Hôtel Païva); Reclams Kunstf. Frankreich I, 1979; P.Fusco/H.W. Janson, The romantics to Rodin (K), L. A. 1980, 160-172; French sculpt., 1780-1940 (K mit Beitr. von J.E. Hargrove, J.Larson), Bruton 1981; B.Lepper, JbBerlMus 23:1981, 179-225; De Carpeaux à Matisse. La sculpt. franç. de 1850 à 1914 dans les mus. et les coll. publiques du nord de la France (K), Lille 1982; Bronzen von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart (K), B. 1983, 195; J.E.Hargrove, Maquettes for the sculpt. of Paris opera, in: Atti del 24 congr. internat. di storia dell’arte, 6, Bo. 1984, 153-159; Renard, 1985; P.Ward-Jackson, BurlMag 127:1985(März)146-153; KD Rumänien, 1986; La sculpt. franç. au 19e s. (K), P. 1986; The Art Found. of Victoria. The first decade of collecting (K), Mb. 1988; P.Kjellberg, Le nouv. guide des statues de Paris, P. 1988.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Segard: Albert Carrier-Belleuse (Paris, 1928)
J. Hargrove: The Life and Work of Albert Carrier-Belleuse (New York, 1977)
P. Ward-Jackson: ‘A.-E. Carrier-Belleuse, J.-J. Feuchère and the Sutherlands’, Burl. Mag., cxxvii (1985), pp. 147–53