Wadsworth Atheneum Acquires Two Rare Nineteenth Century French Sculptures

HARTFORD, CONN.

:Two rare Nineteenth Century French sculptures by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu (1833-1891) have been purchased by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Both will go on view for the first time in "Old Masters/ New Directions: A Decade of Collecting," an exhibition opening August 6. The exhibition will be on view through January 15.

At the July 8 auction at Sotheby's London, the Wads-worth Atheneum was the winning bidder for Gérôme's plaster likeness of the French actress Sarah Bernhardt. Sculpted in the round, the "divine Sarah" wears one of the elaborate high collars she favored, her famously unruly, curly hair piled high, eyes open and lips slightly parted, as though to utter a soliloquy in what Victor Hugo characterized as "the golden voice." On the sculpture base are allegorical figures - swarming winged genii or putti and a standing figure wearing the mask of tragedy to suggest Bernhardt's theatrical triumphs.

Gérôme had long been a highly successful academic painter of historical and Ori-entalist scenes before he turned to sculpture in 1878, at the age of 54. In the 1890s, Gérôme produced nine portrait busts, only two of which were not commissions - one of his daughter and the one of Bernhardt. He painted the plaster of Bernhardt to resemble terra cotta, inscribed it on the base and gave it to the actress. Perhaps Bernhardt, herself an amateur sculptor, found its intense realism not as flattering as she would have liked, since it does not appear in any of the many photographs of her salon.

Today, the leading Gérôme expert, Professor Gerald Ackerman, describes it as a "very fine work in which it is the indomitable character of the actress that comes through, conquering Gérôme's objectivity and demanding our attention." Gérôme also had a polychromed marble created from the unique plaster bust of Bernhardt, which was donated to the French state after his death and is now in the Musée d'Orsay.

From a New York art dealer, the museum as acquired a rare version of "La Jeunesse (Youth)" by Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu. Depicting a graceful female figure reaching upward to place an olive branch on a plinth, this bronze is the largest reduction made of Chapu's original marble sculpture.

The marble was first exhibited at the Salon of 1875, and permanently installed in the courtyard of the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1876 as part of the Monument to Henri Regnault. For this memorial to all the young French artists killed in the Franco-Prussian War, Chapu's allegorical sculpture was placed amid an elaborate architectural framework, with a bust of Regnault by Charles Jean Marie Degeorge installed on top of the plinth.

The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art is at 600 Main Street.

For information, www.wadsworthatheneum.org or 860-278-2670.