JEAN-BAPTISTE CARPEAUX (1827-1875) AND CHRISTOFLE,... Lot 38

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 antique label on reverse A bust of the Imperial Prince, by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Christofle, H : 4 7/8 in 12,50 CM - 4,9 IN In 1864, Napoleon III commissioned Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux to create 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, FNAC deposit 1992; - Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Le Prince impérial, buste nu, 1865, marble, Château de Compiègne, inventory no. RF. 1758. Related literature Anne Middleton Wagner, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux: Sculptor of the Second Empire, Yale University Press, 1990, p. 202 Back from Rome, where he continued his training as a sculptor from 1856 to 1862, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux became Napoleon III's appointed sculptor. This position entailed major official commissions, as well as more intimate ones. Such was the case in 1865, when the imperial couple commissioned Carpeaux to create two portraits, one full-length and the other bust, of their son, Eugène-Louis Napoléon, just eight years old. This double creation lasted from April to July of the same year, when the sculptor had the honor of taking up residence in a studio created for the occasion in the Orangerie des 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 Christofle goldsmiths. The company, founded in 1830, had built its financial success on the discovery of an electrochemical technique for patinating gold and silver, known as galvanoplasty, and wished to promote the process. By affixing its own stamp, Christofle gave the pieces a guarantee of quality and the value of luxury objects. The goldsmiths' commercial ingenuity led them to use the life-size model of the Prince Impérial to demonstrate the effectiveness of their technique. This event, documented by a contract, proves the close collaboration between the company and the artist.