JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX | FLORE ACCROUPIE (CROUCHING FLORA)

This finely carved marble is an adaptation of Carpeaux's famous haut-relief from the Pavillon de Flore. After its completion in 1870, Barbédienne mistakenly predicted that the work would be a commercial failure; it soon became one of Carpeaux's most successful models. Carpeaux sold a marble version for 15000 francs to a private collector in London. There is a preparatory oil sketch of this subject in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes. The marble was edited in the present dimensions by Susse and appears in their catalogues of 1910 and 1914.

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Poletti and Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpteur. Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre édité, Paris, 2003, p. 87, no. 1 SE10