Jean-Baptiste, called Auguste Clésinger

probably Ferdinand Barbedienne, Paris;
Gustave Leblanc-Barbedienne, Paris,

probably Paris, Salon, 1859, no. 3145;
Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1900

Auguste Clésinger presented his marble Bust of Christ for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1859. Subsequently other versions were carved but the present bust is the only one that pre-dates this exhibition. Significantly, it is therefore most probably Clésinger's Salon marble. Ferdinand Barbedienne is said to have purchased this version of the Bust of Christ in order to edit it in bronze, some horinztonal lines on the proper right shoulder are possibly remnants of the process of taking a mould.

Clésinger first exhibited at the Salon with a religious subject, a Virgin, in 1836. However, his breakthrough success came in 1847 when he exhibited his scandalously erotic Woman Bitten by a Snake which enthralled and shocked in equal measure. He became known for his voluptuous nudes with inconsequential classicising allusions. Clésinger's religious sculptures form a fascinating parallel to these better-known works, imbued as they are with a particular sensitivity and conviction.

In the first half of the nineteenth century religious subjects made very rare appearances at the Salon. According to Ruth Butler (Romantics to Rodin, op.cit., pp. 83-95) the climate of anti-clericalism following the French Revolution and the 1830 Revolution effectively banished religious themes from the sculptural repertoire. When religious themes returned, sculptors no longer appeared to have the artistic vocabulary to express the conviction of their subjects. As David d'Angers, once Clésinger's master, wrote: "these saints give the impression that they have sworn to honour something they no longer believe."

The present bust is a magnificent exception. Clésinger's marble is a powerful description of pathos and beauty. The bowed head of Christ, with the thorns pressed into the brow, maintains a dignity despite an expression of intense suffering. The rolling curls falling over the shoulders and down the back, as well as the subtly differentiated surface, show an attention to facture, which matches the sensitivity of the conception. A bronze cast is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no. 1983.158).

RELATED LITERATURE
P. Fusco and H.W. Janson (eds.), The Romantics to Rodin. French nineteenth-century sculpture from North American collections, exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1980, pp. 83-95 and 174-175