Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827–1875); Manufacturer: Sèvres; Modeler: Henri Robert (French, 1889–1933)
Hard-paste biscuit porcelain
H. (with stand) 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm)
Inscription (on pedestal): J B CARPEAUX
Marks: [1] SEVRES (in oval, incised on pedestal); [2] H R (incised on pedestal; mark of Henri Robert, mouleur répareur); [3] S / 1912 (in a triangle incised on pedestal)
Rogers Fund, 1972 (1972.79)
After an unsuccessful effort in 1864 to win a commission for a portrait of Empress Eugénie, Carpeaux proposed to the imperial couple a portrait of their son, Eugène-Louis-Jean-Joseph Napoléon, the Prince Impérial (1856–1879). By August 1865, a lifesize portrait of the nine-year-old prince was complete and the plaster was soon shown publicly at the Salon of 1866. The standing portrait was also executed in marble and cast in silver-patinated bronze, exhibited at the Salons of 1867 and 1868 respectively. Carpeaux chose to portray the prince as a bourgeois lad, shown with the emperor's dog Néro, a gift from the Russian ambassador. In 1869, the Sèvres Manufactory began to produce biscuit porcelain reductions that faithfully reflect the surfaces of marble.
