Neapolitan Fisherboy (Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille)
1857-after 1861
Artist, French, 1827 - 1875
West Building Main Floor, East Sculpture Hall
Artwork overview
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Medium
marble
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 92 × 42 × 47 cm, 390 lb. (36 1/4 × 16 9/16 × 18 1/2 in., 176.903 kg)
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Accession
1943.4.89
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Sold by the artist, possibly before February 1862, to Napoléon III [1808-1873], but officially identified as owned by his wife Eugénie [1826-1920]; installed at the Palais des Tuileries, Paris;[1] taken by the imperial family as private property to their first residence in exile in England, Chislehurst, probably by summer 1871; bequeathed by Eugénie as part of the family estate at her final English residence, The Hall, Farnborough (Hampshire), to her nephew, Prince Napoléon Victor Jérôme Bonaparte [1862-1926]; sold privately before the estate sales of July 1927 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] (Duveen Galleries, New York, by January 1941);[3] sold 1941 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; placed on loan March 1941 to the National Gallery of Art;[4] gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] Louis Clément-Carpeaux, La Vérité sur l'oeuvre et la vie de J.-B. Carpeaux, 2 vols., Paris, 1934-1935: 1:82.
[2] "A Farnborough ont été photographiés par le comte [illegible in original document] chez l'Impératrice Eugénie les deux groupes en marbre du pêcheur et de la Jeune fille de la coquille. Ces groupes n'ont pas figuré à la vente de l'Impératrice, ni à Londres les 1er ou 7 Juillet 1927 ni à Farnborough les 18-27 Juillet 1927. (Le marbre avec son pendant ayant été à Farnborough, ont été achetés à l'amiable par Duveen.)" Registre [Elie Fabius], Archives, Fabius Frères, Paris. Pierre Fabius made available this unpublished reference.
[3] Royal Cortissoz, "Certain Figures in French Sculpture", New York Herald Tribune, 5 January 1941: VI:8. This article was also reprinted as a small book, with black and white illustrations of the sculptures, that served as a catalogue for the exhibition at Duveen Galleries (privately printed by the William Bradford Press, New York, 1941).
[4] In NGA registrarial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1861
Villa Medici, Rome, 1861.
Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1861.
1863
Salon, Paris, 1863, no. 2273, as Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille.
1867
Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867, no. 647, as Pêcheur napolitain.
1871
The One Hundred and Third Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1871, no. 1263, as Le pêcheur napolitain.
1941
Exhibition of Sculpture, Duveen Galleries, New York, 1941.
1974
Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist, as Pêcheur à la coquille (Fisherboy with a Shell).
2014
The Passions of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux [New York title], Carpeaux, 1827-1875. Un sculpteur pour l'empire [Paris title], The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 2014, no. 25, repro.
Bibliography
1880
Chesneau, Ernest. Le Statuaire J.-B. Carpeaux, sa vie, son oeuvre. Paris, 1880: 68.
1914
Lami, Stanislas. Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-neuvième siècle. 4 vols. Paris, 1914-1921: 1(1914):255, 263.
1921
Mabille de Poncheville, André. Carpeaux inconnu. Brussels and Paris, 1921: 186-192, 213.
1934
Clément-Carpeaux, Louise. La Vérité sur l'oeuvre et la vie de J.-B. Carpeaux. 2 vols. Paris, 1934-1935: 102, 109, 125, 136, 151.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 204, repro.
1949
Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 183-184, no. 55, repro. 166.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 458, repro.
1963
Canaday, John. "The Rodin Revolution." New York Times Magazine (9 June 1963): 36, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 147.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 131, repro.
1974
Olander, William. "A Console Table by Dalou." Museum News 17 (1974): 44, repro. fig. 18.
Hoffman, Edith. "Current and Forthecoming Exhibitions: Carpeaux." The Burlington Magazine 67 (1974): 320-323.
1976
Avery, Charles. In Middeldorf, Ulrich. Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools XIV-XIX Century. London, 1976: 115-117, figs. 193, 197-198, as Fisherboy with a Sea Shell.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 646, no. 1021, repro.
1994
Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 43, repro.
1999
Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.
2000
Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 66-75, color repro.
2003
Poletti, Michel and Alain Richarme. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpteur. Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre édité. Paris and Angers, 2003:63.
2012
Daniel Katz Ltd. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: an important pair of marbles (text by Sophie Richard). Exh. brochure. London, 2012: repro. 15, fig.8.
2023
De Margerie, Laure. French Sculpture: An American Passion. Ghent, 2023: 252, fig. 13.
Inscriptions
lightly incised on shell between figure's legs: CD [or (A)] / CARPEAUX / ROMA 18[5 or 6]7
Wikidata ID
Q17442738