Henri Chapu

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Bust of Jean-François Millet, Cherbourg, 1892

Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu (29 September 1833 – 21 April 1891) was a French sculptor in a modified Neoclassical tradition who was known for his use of allegory in his works.

Life and career

Born in Le Mée-sur-Seine into modest circumstances, Chapu moved to Paris with his family and in 1847 entered the Petit École with the intention of studying drawing and becoming an interior decorator. There his talents began to be recognized and he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1849. In 1850 he began working and studying with a well known sculptor James Pradier. Following Pradier's death in 1852 Chapu began studying with another sculptor, Francisque Duret. After coming in second in 1851, he won the Prix de Rome in 1855, then spent five years in Italy. His statues Mercury of 1861 and Jeanne d'Arc of 1870 (in which she was represented as a peasant girl) were his first big successes, and led to many commissions thereafter. He is also known for his medals, and led the French revival in the medal as an artistic form.

An Officer of the French Legion of Honor,^[1] Chapu died in Paris in 1891.

Jeanne d'Arc in Longwood University's Ruffner Hall

At least four full-scale reproductions of Jeanne d'Arc are on permanent display at American universities in Virginia: in McConnell Library at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, beneath the rotunda in Ruffner Hall at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, at James Madison University, and at the University of Mary Washington.^[2]

Notable works

Monument to Henri Regnault in the courtyard of École des Beaux-Arts (1872)
Tomb of Marie d'Agoult (1877)
Four Seasons on the facade of grande magasin Printemps, Paris (1881–1889), for architect Paul Sédille
Monument to Gustave Flaubert (1890), his last major work.

References

↑ The Iconographic Encyclopaedia of the Arts and Scien: Sculpture and painting, 1887, page 138
↑ http://www.jmu.edu/centennialcelebration/joan.shtml

Fusco, Peter and H. W. Janson, editors, The Romantics to Rodin, Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1980
Mackay, James, The Dictionary of Sculptors in Bronze, Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk 1977

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Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 39387795 LCCN: nr98029194 ISNI: 0000 0000 6641 4696 GND: 124051340 BNF: cb12011245d ULAN: 500000270

Persondata
Name	Chapu, Henri
Alternative names
Short description	French artist
Date of birth	29 September 1833
Place of birth
Date of death	21 April 1891
Place of death

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