Images(3)

Bust of a Woman

Artist Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse French, 1824–1887

Datecirca 1870–1875

MediumTerracotta

Dimensions24 1/2 x 16 x 11 1/4 in. (62.2 x 40.6 x 28.6 cm)

ClassificationsSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Lady Marcia Cunliffe-Owen Bequest and the State of North Carolina

Object number81.1.1

On View

On view

Label TextAlthough Carrier-Belleuse sculpted portrait busts of such dignitaries as Emperor Napoleon III, some of his works seem to be decorative representations rather than portrayals of specific individuals. This ceramic sculpture does have the air of an individual likeness, although the woman’s identity is unknown.

Carrier-Belleuse is perhaps best known today for his association with Auguste Rodin, who worked as his assistant and collaborator beginning in 1864. The contrast in the crisp and fine detail of Carrier-Belleuse’s sculpture with the almost uncomfortable realism of Rodin’s, next to it, shows the revolution that Rodin brought to sculpture.
[M. Frederick, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2022]
Note: This work was exhibited with Auguste Rodin's Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose [2009.1.1].ProvenanceMichael Hall Fine Arts, Inc., New York; sold to NCMA, 1981.Published ReferencesEdgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 159.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 139.

David Steel, Rodin: The Cantor Foundation Gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), briefly discussed and illus. (b-w) 2.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," October 7, 2022–present. Object Rights Statement

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