Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

Carpeaux's Espérence is very rare model with only a handful examples existing in plaster, marble and terracotta. The sculptor first executed the model in plaster in 1868 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen (inv. no. IN 1416)).

It has been suggested that this portrait was created as a study for Carpeaux's sculpture of Joan of Arc, which is now lost. Carpeaux conceived three versions of the subject, a half-length version with hands clasped together and titled entitled La Prière, of which the original plaster is preserved in the Petit Palais museum in Paris; the second version also titled L'Espérance, looking upwards and her hair braided and arranged in two buns behind her ears; thirdly, the present example where she wears her hair long crowned by a wreath of lilies and also looking up towards the sky with a hopeful expression. A marble version of the present model sold in these rooms, Sotheby's Paris, 26 October 2011, lot 227 for 72,750 EUR (aggregate).

RELATED LITERATURE

M. Poletti, A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpteur, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2003, p.128, BU 28; https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/en/node/227451, 21/11/2023