Bacchic Venuses: Maenads in a Wood by Gustave Doré

Maenads in a Wood (1879)

We have looked at the work of Gustave Doré (1832-1883) before with his painting of Andromeda. Doré was better known for his engravings, of course, but later in his comparatively short life he took up sculpture.  He first started sculpting in 1871 but didn't exhibit his first work until 1877; two years before this work.

This plaster relief was inspired by his own painting of the same year The Death of Orpheus.  In the plaster relief Orpheus is absent and we just have this splendid pile of sinuous, naked Maenads.  The Maenads were female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in Roman mythology, hence the followers were known as Bacchantes).  Traditionally, they would get into a frenzied state through wild dancing and drinking (Maenads literally means "raving ones").  They also possessed poisoned talons and it was group of Maenads who killed Orpheus for having rejected Dionysus in favour of Apollo.

Bacchantes (the Roman term was more popular) were popular subjects with nineteenth century artists, no doubt because of the opportunity to depict wild, abandoned women or those posed in attitudes of post-frenzy sprawl.  The fact that Maenads were also believed to have engendered uncontrollable sexual frenzy amongst those they came into contact with also played well to the Victorian idea of sexual woman as predatory beast.

Triple P took this picture of the piece in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where it is exhibited, last summer.

Victorian Venus: Hypatia by Richard Belt

We have looked at the story of Hypatia before but here is another interpretation by the sculptor Richard Claude Belt (1854-1920).  We came across and photographed this fine piece at the Draper's Hall in London where Triple P was attending a dinner.  The Draper's Hall, which is one of the most splendid livery halls in the City, also houses Sir Herbert Draper's splendid paintings The Gates of Dawn and, on the ceiling, Prospero summoning Nymphs and Deities.

You can just make out the sculpture in the far corner of the hall.  Agent Triple P is visible in this picture!

Belt was the son of a Westminster blacksmith who became a successful and fashionable (he moved in the Oscar Wilde set), if not universally appreciated, sculptor. Charles Lawes, another sculptor, accused him of being a fraud who got others to do his sculpting.  By this time Belt had produced sculptures of the Royal family, Charles Kingsley, Lord Byron (the profitable commission for which was said to have been down to his influential friends) and other eminent figures.  In 1881 he sued Lawes for libel, in the last case ever heard at the Westminster Hall.  The case dragged on for 43 days and Belt called 82 witnesses to testify that he had, indeed, sculpted his own material.  During the trial he actually sculpted a bust of the judge, Baron Huddlestone, in court to demonstrate his skills.  He was awarded £5,000 in damages against Lawes. Lawes, however went bankrupt as a result and it seems that Belt never received the money, driving him into financial difficulties.

Richard Belt

Things didn't go so well for Belt in 1886 when he was in the dock for the fraudulent sale of jewellery to Sir William Abdy.  By now also practising as a photographer, he had introduced an Austrian lady, several years before, to his friend Sir William Abdy.  Sir William married the lady but only susbsequently discovered, as Belt well knew, that she was addicted to diamonds.  Belt bought diamonds cheaply and then sold them to Sir William to feed his wife's habit at four times their market value. He went to prison for 12 months with hard labour.

Belt's Hypatia was purchased by the Drapers Company in 1890.  There is nothing that particularly marks her out as Hypatia but she is as good a reason as any to turn out a splendid Victorian nude.

Suspended Venuses: Girls in hammocks by Sir Sydney Harpley

When Triple P was at school  he was a library monitor, mainly because it gave him the oppotunity to stay indside during bad weather and throw noxious little squirts out of the library for talking too loudly.  Also the teacher in charge of the library, an extraordinarily cute German lady who was the only female teacher at the school, was so fine that Triple P and his co-conspirator, Frogspawn, would have done anything for her. 

The third librarian was a jolly chap called Nicholas who was rather derided on account of the fact that he was small and rather arty and said his father was a sculptor.  This, we felt, was a pathetic job and we poured scorn on the unfortunate Nicholas as a result.  It was only years later that Agent Triple P realised that Nicholas's father was none other than Sir Sydney Harpley (1927-1992) whose wonderful bronzes were the highlight, for Triple P, of every year's Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

Anyway, he was particularly famous for his girls in hammocks so here are a few.  Wish we had been nicer to young Nicholas now...

Venus in a hammock: sculpture by Antonio Frilli

Scarlett Knight has commented that she was not aware of composer, Andre Lloyd-Webber's art collecting habit.  Here, as an example of his taste, which centres very much around the nineteenth century, is Antonio Frilli's magnificent Nude Reclining in a Hammock which Lloyd-Webber bought at Sotheby's, New York in 1994.

Not much is known about Frilli, other than the fact he was based in Florence where a studio he established still produces high quality copies of classical and renaissance sculpture.  His work was first recorded at the Esposizione Nazionale in Rome in 1883 and he also exhibited in Glasgow in 1888, Paris in 1889 and the St Louis International Exhibition in 1904, the setting, of course, for the musical Meet me in St Louis (1944)starring Judy Garland.  It was at the St Louis exhibition that this sculpture was bought by William Goldman, ironically, a theatrical entrepreneur. 

The Mastbaum Theater in Philadelphia which was build in 1929 and demolished in 1958

Goldman kept it in his garden until he moved it to join the numerous other works of art adorning the palatial Jules Mastbaum Theatre in Philadelphia in 1932.  This huge 4,717 seat cinema was named after Stanley cinema chain owner Jules Mastbaum (1872-1926) who was also a collector of sculpture. Mastbaum owned the largest collection of works by Rodin outside France, which he donated to the city of Philadelphia where they are still on exhibition in a building he commissioned (Agent Triple P went to see it a couple of years ago and we will feature it in due course).

Diana with a Deer (c.1900)

Frilli produced a number of copies of works by other sculptors and like other Italian sculptors of his generation was more influenced by 17th century style than the previous generation's reverence for neo-classical sculptures like Canova.  He produced a number of sculptures in what is known as Stile Liberty in Italy (Art Nouveau) such as these mixed marble and bronze pieces Diana with a Deer and Girl with Peacocks.

Girl with Peacocks

Frilli's workshop in Florence also produced a number of attractive decorative marble busts in bronze, marble and alabaster, such as the two examples below.

Nude reclining in a Hammock is his masterpiece, however, and it is believed that he worked on it from 1883 until 1904 when it was first exhibited.  At least two versions, both in white marble, were produced.  The second (below) was sold at Sotheby's New York as well in 1999 for $100,000.

The feeling of suspension Frilli achieves in this sculpture is really quite marvellous and you quite forget that the apparently flimsy draperies are what are holding the whole thing up.  The girls arm looks like it is idly dangling when, of course, it too, is part of the structure supporting the weight.

There is nothing classical about this wonderful, life-sized sculpture; she is a naked, modern girl beautifully captured in a sensuously indolent moment.

Utterly brilliant!

More girls in hammocks another time...

Victorian Venus: Eve by Sir Thomas Brock

Eve (1900) by Sir Thomas Brock

Here we have a quite wonderful late Victorian piece by Sir Thomas Brock (1847-1922) which Triple P discovered during his recent visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum (on loan from the Tate).

This is Eve (1900), a life-sized figure, which Brock had exhibited at the Royal Academy as a plaster work in 1898, completing this marble version two years later.  He also subsequently produced some smaller bronze versions as well.

Eve, bronze version

Thomas Brock was born in Worcester 1847 in Worcester.  Like Albert Toft he got his start in a ceramics factory. He attended the School of Design in Worcester where he won a box of colours at the age of ten! 

Thomas Brock in his studio, 1889

By the time he was twelve he was apprenticed in the modelling department of Kerr & Binns porcelain works. One figure that can be attributed to him from his time modelling porcelain figures is Bather surprised which he sculpted in 1868, probably as a commission, and was first released by Royal Worcester in 1875.

 Bather Surprised (1875)

At the age of nineteen he became a pupil of John Henry Foley and started his studies at the Royal Academy Schools a year after that.  When Foley died in 1874 it was Brock who completed many of Foley's commisions including, notably, the statue of Prince Albert in the Albert memorial in London.

Brock's model for the Imperial monument to Queen Victoria

Brock, like Toft, produced many monuments around the UK, such as the statue of Captain Cook in the Mall and the statue of Sir Henry Irving in Charing Cross Road.  Another famous monument by Brock is the Titanic memorial in Belfast, which was unveiled in 1920.

Titanic Memorial, Belfast

Brock's most famous work, however, is the Imperial Monument to Queen Victoria in front of Buckingham Palace which was, at the time, the largest work completed by a British sculptor. When it was unveiled on 16th May, 1911 King George V was so impressed he knighted Brock on the spot!  Others were less taken with it and The Sphere magazine printed a very harsh critique of the monument.  Even less impressed were the people of New Zealand, mention of whom had accidentally been left off the monument; something that wasn't rectified until 1922.

Unveiling of the Queen Victoria Monument, May 16th 1911

Brock's Eve is a delicate work which manages to combine a sensual quality with an impression of shame at the same time.  The modelling of the figure, particularly her legs, is quite wonderful. Unlike the Victoria monument Eve was universally praised, particularly when it was displayed at the Paris Universal Exhibition, where its naturalism and spiritualism was much appreciated

She has the look of one of JW Waterhouse's girls and her expression captures the moment when she realises excatly what she has done.  Not an evil temptress, this, but a young woman who just made the wrong choice and now, patently, regrets it.  A subtle, graceful and beautifully executed sculpture that deserves to be better known.

Bathing Venus: The Bather by Albert Toft

The Bather (1915)

Here is a nice, life size bather from the early part of the twentieth century by Albert Toft (1862-1949).  Toft originally worked at the Wedgewood factory (as did his father) and studied art part time in Henley and Newcastle under Lyme. His brother, the splendidly named J Alphonsus Toft, was a painter.

Nude on a Rock

In 1881 studied at the National Art Training School (later to become the Royal College of Art) in South Kensington.  This figure can also now be found in South Kensington as Agent Triple P recently came across it in the sculpture halls of the Victoria and Albert Museum.  His teacher at the National Art Training School  was the French born sculptor Edouard Lanteri who had fled Paris for London due to the Franco-Prussian War.  Some of Lanteri's figures decorate the exterior of the V&A itself.  Lanteri was also then tutor of F W Doyle-Jones whose best known work is the figures at the main entrance to Waterloo station.

Evening

Toft did a series of nudes, such as The Bather, from the late eighteen eighties until well into the twentieth century.  These nude figures tend to have very beautiful faces with full sensuous lips, short or off the shoulder hair and realistic rather than idealised figures. 

The Bather

In 1915 The Bather was bought for the nation by the Chantrey Bequest. The successful sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (1781-1841) left what was then the enormous sum of £105,000 to the Royal Academy so that they could start to build up a national collection of British Art. It was a great honour for an artist to have one of his works bought by the bequest.

The Bather

From 1885 until 1947 Toft was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy.  He produced a number of sculptures for public monuments, particularly of Queen Victoria, for provincial towns and cities in Britain as well as figures for war memorials such as the Royal London Fusiliers monument in Holborn in London.

 Royal London Fusiliers monument (1920)

This sculpture, the Spirit of Contemplation exists in a number of versions; notably one where the scroll across her lap is missing.

 Spirit of Contemplation

 Spirit of Contemplation.  Version without scroll

Spirit of Contemplation Bronze version

There is also a version that was produced in bronze.

This sculpture is of the Biblical character Hagar, the mother of Ishmael by Abraham.  This depicts the scene when, wandering with her son in the desert with no water Hagar bursts into tears and Ishmael calls on God for help.  A well then appears saving both their lives.

Hagar

Venus with a snake 5: Woman Bitten by a Snake by Auguste Clésinger

Auguste Clésinger, Femme piquée par un serpent (1847)

Time for another woman with a snake with this sculpture by the French artist Auguste Clésinger.  This sculpture caused a huge scandal when it was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1847.  There were two aspects of the work that outraged Parisians: primarily it was the sensuously abandoned form of the female figure sprawled in a way that had not been seen before. 

Secondly, Clésinger, in order to perfect the pose, had used a full body cast of his model from which to work.  So not only was the female figure depicted in an erotic pose but was a direct representation of a real woman rather than a classically idealised form; she even has cellulite!  Needless to say it did wonders for Clésinger's reputation and fame.

Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger (1814-1883)

Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger, to give him his full name, was born in Besançon on 22nd October 1814. His father, Georges-Philippe Clésinger was also a sculptor and he  trained his son.  Clésinger first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1843 but it wasn't until Woman with a Snake that his fame was assured.

Solange Clésinger (1828-1899)

The same year that the sculpture was exhibited he married George Sand's daughter Solange Dudevant but they seperated in 1855 and shortly afterwards their only child died at the age of seven. 

Clésinger figure of Euterpe, the muse of music, tops Chopin's monument in Paris

In 1859 he made Chopin's death mask and sculpted the figure for the composer's funerary monument at the  Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.  He had been awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1849 and became an officer of the order in 1864.

Auguste Clésinger Marianne modellled by Berthe de Courrière

Later in his life  Clésinger took as his mistress and model Berthe de Courrière who was 38 years his junior. A generously proportioned lady who had already been the mistress of General Georges Boulanger who later, as a politician, was on the point of launching a coup d'état in Paris n 1889 but, at the last minute, decided to go the democratic route.  In the meantime the French authorities ordered his arrest, he fled to Jersey and only returned to mainland Europe to committ suicide on the grave of another of his mistresses, Madame de Bonnemains.  Berthe then went on to be the mistress of several French ministers before Clésinger. 

Berthe de Courrière by Clésinger

Clésinger called her, rather ungallantly,  la grande dame ("the big woman") or Berthe aux grands pieds ("Bigfoot Bertha").  Clésinger left his entire estate to her, making her a rich woman.  Three years after Clésinger's death she became the mistress of the French writer and critic Remy de Gourmont.  He left his entire estate to her as well but she died only a year later in 1916 and was bured alongside Clésinger. Berthe was the model for Clésinger's sculpture of the Marianne in the French Senate. 

Apollonie Sabatier by Vincent Vidal

The model who had her body cast for Woman Bitten by a Snake was another colourful inhabitant of Parisian society at the time, the salonnière (a polite word for a high class courtesan) Apollonie Sabatier  (born Josephine Savatier Aglaia ). She was the illegitimate daughter of   Etienne Louis Harms, Viscount Abancourt and a laundress.  She moved to Paris, changed her name and became friends with many of the writers and artists of the day including Théophile Gautier, Alfred de Musset , Gustave Flaubert,  Édouard Manet, Hector Berlioz and Alexandre Dumas pere.  

Gustave Courbet's (1819-1877) The Artist's Studio (1855) At the far right of the painting are (l to r) Apollonia Sabatier, Alfred Mosselman and Charles Baudelaire

She became  Baudelaire's secret mistress and is depicted with the writer, posed with her lover, the Belgian businessman Alfred Mosselman, in Courbet's The Artist's Studio.  Mosselman actually commissioned Woman Bitten by a Snake and owned it until he sold it in 1863.  Clésinger also produced a portrait bust of Sabatier the same year that Woman Bitten by a Snake was exhibited although it is noticeable that the generous proportions of her actual bust have been reduced for the more classical and less realistic head and shoulders portrait.  After Mosselman's death in 1867 she became the mistress of famous Paris-based English art collector Sir Richard Wallace whose eponymous art collection is now housed in his former house in Manchester Square, London.

Auguste Clésinger Madame Sabatier (1847)

The sculpture itself depicts a woman writhing in agony following the effect of a snakebite although, as we know that the original title of the work was supposed to be Dream of Love it suggests that the woman is writhing about for entirely different reasons.  It was this sensuality that scandalised the public on its exhibition. 

Woman Bitten by a Snake - Height 56.5; Width 180; Depth 70 cm

The critics were scandalised for other reasons.  They felt that the use of a life cast was, somehow, cheating and evidence of a lack of integrity on the part of the sculptor although, to be fair, the figure still needed to be carved from marble. Delacroix, who was the first major artist to use photographs as reference later on, sniffily called it a "sculpted daguerreotype".   However, the real thing that offended was the fact that the figure was a direct representation of an actual body rather than a classical idealisation.  Mme Sabatier's  generous proprtions are a long way from a classical sylph.

The figure's generous breasts and belly were groundbreaking but controversial

Interestingly, the snake itself is a tiny creature depicted as being wrapped around the figure's left wrist suggesting that the title was, indeed, something of an afterthought (see below). However not all were scandalised by this new, realistic depiction of the female body. The French poet Théophile Gautier said that Clésinger had made "beauty without cuteness, without affectation, without mannerism, with a head and a body of our own time".   

The snake is just visible on the left wrist

A year later Clésinger produced a similar sculpture of an equally abondoned looking female figure.  This time the contorted figure is depicted on a bed of vine leaves and bunches of grapes and is, if anything, even more sensual than Woman Bitten by a Snake.

Auguste Clésinger, Bacchante (1848)

Again, Clésinger models a woman with  a large bust, not the neat hemispheres of the classical approach, complete with erect nipples.  The ruffled material of her carelessly discarded dress caresses her pubic mound.

Bacchante (1848)

Clésinger's later sculptures (which included many religious ones for Parisian churches) were more conventional, especially as regards his depiction of women.  He even revisted the woman with sbnake theme with the much more classically inspired Woman and Snake.

Femme et Serpent (1863)

However, whilst Clésinger did not return to his "realistic" style other sculptors, no doubt hoping to gain the same notoriety, produced a series of abondoned, contorted women in their works.  Also in the Musée d'Orsay is Reclining Bacchante (1892) by Augustine-Jean Moreau Vauthier (1831-1893).

Reclining Bacchante (1892) by Augustine-Jean Moreau Vauthier

Augustin-Jean Moreau-Vauthier was originally  an ivory carver but later went on to study sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts from 1850 under Armand Toussaint. He became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1885.  His reclining Bacchante owes everything to Clésinger's earlier work and nothing to Moreau-Vauthier's earlier style where he worked in ivory.

Augustin-Jean Moreau-Vauthier, La Peinture Ivory figurine

Completing the trio of sprawling women in the Musée d'Orsay is Young Tarentine by Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk (1820-1885)

Pierre-Alexandre Schoenewerk, Young Tarentine (1871)

Although Schoenewerk  was French his parents were German and so he was barred from competing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He began his career  in the studios of Henri-Joseph-François, Baron de Triqueti and David d’Angers and exhibited plaster religious and biblical pieces at the Paris Salon between 1841 and 1847.  It is no coincidence that in 1848, the year after Clésinger's Woman Bitten by a Snake was exhibited, he turned to mildly erotic mythological subjects. Young Tarentine depicts the drowned body of a girl from the poem of the same name by André Chénier.

In a way Clésinger's work, with its accurate depiction of a contemporary body and its complex and arousing pose is a precursor of the contorted figures of Rodin and is more influential than is generally recognised today.