Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824-1887): A bronze portrait bust of Rembrandt van Rijn

Footnotes

Provenance:
Acquired by a private UK collector, Sotheby's, London, 19th Century Sculpture, 15 March 1991, lot 147.

Albert Ernest Carrier Belleuse started work in an engraving works under the supervision of the proprietor Bauchery at the age of 13 before moving to work in the studios of the sculptor Fauconnier.

With the help of David D'Angers he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts before leaving to study decorative arts at the Petite Ecole.

Within a short space of time he had become a well-known modeller working on commissions for candelabra, dishes and bowls for the porcelain industry who use them to create the works in this ceramic medium and by 1850 he even had arranged a contract with English factory of Minton.

Carrier made his debut as a sculptor at the Salon of 1857 but his first critical success came with his nude study of a Bacchante which was purchased by the Emperor Napoleon III for the Tuilery gardens at the Salon of 1863.

This royal stamp of approval ensured an immediate popularity with the French public ensuring both critical and commercial success for the idealised busts and figures and portrait busts and figures he created including monuments such as Dumas Pere in 1884 and the prestigious contracts for the decorative figural work to the facades of the Louvre, the Bank of France and the new Opera House in Paris.

Carrier's output included every aspect of the decorative arts including designs for all manner of decorative and useful objects and a series of drawings published by Goupil in 1884 which presented his ideas on the application of the human form in industrial decoration.

Along with Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827-1875), Carrier was responsible for influencing the major changes in French sculpture from the classical to the more romantic and baroque and ultimately to that of realism and impressionism in the closing years of the century.