FRENCH SCULPTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
One of the more remarkable proofs that the progress of art, however varied in its manifestations, is based on certain laws outside of human con trol or prevision, is shown by the similar tendencies which different arts exhibit at the same period. At the same time during the eighteenth century Houdon and David introduced a cult of classic art and customs. When this movement had lost its force, there sprang up early in the nine teenth century the romantic movement and the emotional school of paint ing founded by such artists as Gericault, Decamps, and Delacroix. Con temporary with this school came a school of sculpture that ignored classic art and preached the gospel of realism or naturalism, of emotion, of sensuousness, which hitherto had been considered outside the domain of high plastic art.
So many really fine works have been created by this school that we do not feel that the time has yet come to decide impartially as to the relative merits of recent French sculpture. It is quite possible that the time is coining when the principles on which sculpture is based may be enlarged, rendered more elastic, in order to include a new order of works of genuine merit without affecting the general standard to be followed by great sculptors. Certainly it is somewhat hazardous to condemn such artists as Pradier, Carpcaux, or Barye because they have dared to depart from the severe lines of classic sculpture.
James Pradier, who was born in 1790 and died in 1852, was ill fitted to represent Madonnas or the stately dignity of goddesses, although lie made the attempt, but he could well typify in marble the physical beauty of woman. This has been called sensual art; it may be, but feminine loveliness is not necessarily sensuous except to the sensual or unless the attitudes are immodest. Pradier's Serious and Comic Muses on Molire's monument are very attractive, and the beautifully-draped figures of the noble fountain at Nimes, whether classic or not, challenge the admira tion of the coldest heart. This is the of Pradier. In the gracefully animated statue of the maiden (e.l. 40, fig. 8) who disengages her beautiful figure from the robe which furnishes a good background for the statue we have a portrayal of Light Poet;y, which entertains us pleasantly without leaving a lasting impression on the mind. That
Pradier was also capable of displaying spirited action is shown in his statue of Prometheus.
Francois Rude, born in 1785 and died in 1855, began as a follower of the neo-classic style of Houdon, but eventually went entirely over to the naturalistic school. He was an artist of decided talents, but in his con version to realism went to such degrees of extravagance as to injure the cause he advocated. His figure Bellona in the alto-rilievo on the Arc de Pttoile has been truthfully stated to represent an equestrienne standing on two horses.
Pierre Jean De/rid—called D'Angers to distinguish him from David the painter—was born in 1793 and died in 1856. His art-career somewhat resembles that of Rude. Having in his early studies taken the prilr de Rome, lie went to Italy to study classic art. After pursuing that field for a time, the influence of the age was too much for him, and lie became a pronounced realist. The art of D'Angers is important for its quantity and for the prominent commissions awarded him, aside from the question of its merits, concerning; which there is great dispute. Many of his works are colossal, such as the statue of Kil:r Rem' at Aix. He was also a painter and professor of painting in the Academy. The reliefs on the pediment of the Pantheon are his work.
Genre-su/jeds.—Contemporaneously with the sculptors just named the French go% eminent exhibited the utmost generosity in enlarging and endowing the school of sculpture; every facility in the way of models, casts, and instruction was afforded. One result of this wide diffusion of the technical qualities of sculpture has been a tendency to genre— a field quite new in the history of sculpture. Many artists having a feeling for beauty, an interest in the phases of humble or child life, but possessed of little sense of the ideal or of high art, find a congenial field in plastic genre. These sculptures have been exceedingly popular, and, through innumerable reproductions in terra-cotta, the white ware called Parini] marble, and bronze, have aided in adding beauty to thou sands of homes. Among these sculptors are Auguste Louis M. Ottin (born in iSi t), Antoine Etex (born iii iSoS), Pierre Charles Simart (18o6-1857), and Dolan.