Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (After) - Chinese Man, N°1 (study for Asia) (1868)

Chinese Man, N°1 (study for Asia) (1868). Model for the fountain of the observatory. Sketch

This beautiful bust of a young Chinese man, finely cast in bronze, represents a high point in the work of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The Chinaman is one of Carpeaux's most sought-after models, which he made in preparation for the monumental group for the Observatory fountain. In 1867, Baron Haussmann, then prefect of Paris, commissioned the architect Gabriel Davioud, director of works for the city, to create this fountain for the Observatory garden. Davioud asked Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux to design it. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's genius lay in his ability to choose great themes that he transposed into original compositions. His group for the Observatory is surprising. The sculptor designed a group of four figures embodying the Four Parts of the World, supporting the celestial sphere represented by a hollowed-out globe. Two of these allegories, Asia and Africa, are executed after a live model. Asia is represented by this Chinese man and Africa by a bust entitled "Pourquoi naître esclave?" (Why be born as a slave?)

Although Carpeaux carefully modelled the features of his model, the title of the bust, Le Chinois, transforms this unknown man into an idealized "type", i.e. into a representation of an entire people.

The fountain was not executed until 1874, a year before Carpeaux's death, and the bust of the Chinese personifying Asia was finally adapted to a female figure in order to harmonize and balance the group.

Carpeaux made two different versions of the Le Chinois:
Chinese Man, NO. 1 (1868). Sketch. The 1868 version is more sketchy and is characterized by a more spontaneous modelling.
Chinese Man N°2 (1872) represents a more elaborate naturalistic version of the same model and was exhibited at the 1872 Salon and in Brussels in 1874.
After the Prussian War of 1870 and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's exile in England, the Atelier Carpeaux, which had been set up to reproduce the artist's work, reopened and began to market the two versions of the bust of the Chinaman. Here, the sculptor was particularly innovative in publishing the sketched version of the work (which, for the time, was boldly modern). The public appreciates the vitality of the model, the flat areas of material that animate his costume and the movement of the face turned to the right that multiplies the points of view.

The two versions of The Chinese man were produced by the artist's studio from 1872, and then posthumously from 1875. Posthumous editions of both versions were produced by the Susse-Frères workshop from 1914 onwards.

The two versions were also published in different heights (between 35 and 70 cm) and in different materials (terracotta, bronze and marble)

The model presented here is a cast from the first version of 1868 and is based on an old studio plaster which was probably created in preparation for the Susse edition of this bust.