Soon after the 1869 unveiling of his controversial figural group La Danse, which embellished the facade of Charles Garnier's Paris Opéra, Carpeaux began to capitalize on the group by extracting busts, individual figures, and groups of figures to be issued for sale. Pressed for funds, he created reductions such as this for sale to collectors. This Genius is a bronze founder's model designed to be taken apart in the places indicated by joints held together by pins. The separate parts were molded and cast, then joined by hand, the projecting flanges being left so that the extra metal would permit more nearly invisible joining of the seams in the subsequent edition.

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