Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse

Belleuse, Carrier de
Carrier, A.

French, 1824 - 1887

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French Sculptor (1824–1887)

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A centaur, a creature with a man’s torso and horse’s body, wraps both arms around a nearly nude woman who falls backward in this bronze, freestanding sculpture. In this photograph, the centaur faces our right with its front feet rearing up. His muscular torso leans to our left, and his mouth is wide open and brows deeply furrowed. A wreath of flowers is tied with a bow around his head, and he looks to the right. In his arms, the woman’s legs and arms fall back as she arcs away from him. One knee and one elbow are bent, and drapery covers only her groin. Her hair cascades onto the centaur’s rump, and her eyes and mouth are wide open. The centaur’s tail is lifted, and one back foot is planted forward, under the bulk of his body. The other leg is bent so the top of that hoof rests on a swath of fabric that falls down the far side of the pair. Water pours from an overturned urn onto a textured ground between the centaur’s feet. The cast base has molding and a plaque on the front reading, “L’ENLEVEMENT.” The bronze is shiny brown in some areas with a pine-green patina in other areas.
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, Auguste Rodin, The Abduction of Hippodamia (L'Enlèvement d'Hippodamie), model 1877/1879, cast after 1877, bronze, William Nelson Cromwell Fund, 1977.58.1

The Abduction of Hippodamia (L'Enlèvement d'Hippodamie)

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, Auguste Rodin · model 1877/1879, cast after 1877 · bronze ·  Accession ID  1977.58.1

The head, shoulders, and upper chest of a woman are sculpted from light brown terracotta in this freestanding sculpture. In this photograph, the woman’s shoulders are angled very slightly to our right, and she turns and tips her head to look off to the left. She has a straight nose, full lips, and a dimpled chin. Fabric lies over curls piled atop her head and around her neck. Thin cloth drapes across her shoulders and chest, revealing one nipple. The bottom edge of the sculpture is curved, and the bust sits on a round, red stone base with molding at the top and bottom, and a tall, inward-curving cove around the center. The sculpture is photographed against a pale gray background.
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, Fantasy Bust of a Veiled Woman (Marguerite Bellanger?), c. 1865/1870, glazed terracotta on red marble socle, New Century Fund, 2010.63.1

Fantasy Bust of a Veiled Woman (Marguerite Bellanger?)

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse · c. 1865/1870 · glazed terracotta on red marble socle ·  Accession ID  2010.63.1

Bibliography

1914

  • Lami, Stanislas. Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'école française au dix-neuvième siècle. 4 vols. Paris, 1914-1921: 1(1914):276-185.

1928

  • Ségard, Achille. Albert Carrier-Belleuse, 1824-1887. Paris, 1928.

1977

  • Hargrove, June. The Life and Work of Albert Carrier-Belleuse. New York, 1977.

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: 80, 82.