JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX (1827-1875) AND CHRISTOFLE THE... Lot 21

JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX (1827-1875) AND CHRISTOFLE THE IMPERIAL PRINCE, NUDE BUST Electroplated bust Titled "SA. PRINCE IMPERIAL" Signed "JB CARPEAUX / TUILERIES PAQUES 1865" on the side Christofle stamp and old label on the reverse A Bust of the Imperial Prince, by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Christofle HEIGHT. 12.5 CM - H 4 7/8 IN. In 1864, Napoleon III commissioned Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux to make a statue of his son Louis Napoleon. Related work - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Le Prince impérial, buste nu, 1865, plaster, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, inventory no. RF. 3915; - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Le Prince impérial, buste nu, 1865, bronze, Roubaix, Musée d'Art et d'Industrie - La Piscine, deposit FNAC 1992; - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Le Prince impérial, buste nu, 1865, marble, Château de Compiègne, inventory n° RF. 1758. Related literature Anne Middleton Wagner, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Sculptor of the Second Empire, Yale University Press, 1990, p. 202 Upon his return from Rome, where he continued his training as a sculptor from 1856 to 1862, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux became Napoleon III's appointed sculptor. This function implies important official orders, but also others more intimate. This was the case in 1865 when the imperial couple commissioned Carpeaux to create two portraits, one full-length and one bust, of their son, Eugène-Louis Napoléon, who was just eight years old. This double creation lasted from April to July of the same year, when the sculptor was honored to settle in a studio created for the occasion in the Orangery of the Tuileries. Only two years after the creation of his full-length portrait, in 1867, Carpeaux agreed to sell a plaster model, for a lump sum: the price of a casting, to the goldsmith's house Christofle. The company, founded in 1830, built its financial success on the discovery of a technique of patina of gold and agent by electrochemical way, the galvanoplasty, and wishes to promote this process. In spite of everything, Christofle's stamp gives the pieces a guarantee of quality and a value of luxury objects. The commercial ingenuity of the silversmiths led them to use the life-size model of the Prince Imperial to demonstrate the effectiveness of their technique. This event, documented by a contract, proves a close collaboration between the house and the artist. "1000