- Hippolyte Moulin
Hippolyte Alexandre Julien Moulin, sometimes given as Julien-Hippolyte Moulin or Hypolite Moulin, (1832- 1884) was a 19th century French sculptor.
Moulin, a shopkeeper's son, entered the
École des Beaux-Arts in 1855 but was unable to afford to continue the lessons and had to become a language teacher inParis to support himself. He subsequently studied with Auguste-Louis-Marie Ottin and withAntoine-Louis Barye .His
bronze statue "A Lucky Find atPompeii " ("Une Trouvaille à Pompei") (1863) depicts a nude boy with a spade dancing for joy with one leg raised, because he has unearthed a Romanstatuette . His nude pose reflects that of the statuette itself, possibly indicating that the statue depicts the excavator "imagining" himself in the original statuette's pose.The statue won a medal at the
Paris Salon of 1864 and became his most famous work.The life-size original was bought by the French Government for 7,000
franc s and exhibited at theExposition Universelle in 1867. It now stands on a tall pedestal in theMusée d'Orsay alongsideAlexandre Falguière 's "Winner of theCockfight " on an adjacent pedestal - another bronze nude dancing boy poised on one leg that had also been exhibited at the 1864 Salon.Moulin won further Salon medals in 1867 and 1869, and another at the Exposition Universelle of 1878.
His other works include "Victoria Mars" (plaster exhibited at the Salon of 1872) and "A Secret from On High" ("Secret d'en Haut") (plaster 1873;
marble 1875, now also in the Musée d'Orsay alongside other marble statues.)"A Secret from On High" depicts a life-size nude Mercury (
Hermes ) whispering a secret to a herm - a column topped by a bust of himself - knowing that it will never repeat what he tells it.Moulin spent his last few years in a rest home for the mentally ill.
References
Biographical information adapted from "The Romantics to Rodin" by
Peter Fusco andH.W. Janson (ISBN 0-87587-091-0)External links
* [http://www.insecula.com/contact/A008530.html Insecula (French language): index to pages on "A Secret from On High" and "A Lucky Find at Pompeii"]
* [http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0013388.html Insecula: index to three views of Falguière's "Winner of the Cockfight" in which Moulin's adjacent "A Lucky Find at Pompeii" is also prominently visible]
* [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/41205325/?qo=132&q=orsay&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5 Visitor photo of "A Lucky Find at Pompeii" - links to 1 Mb version] (DeviantArt )
* [http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1170462437056400354zAFFAn "A secret from On High" (misidentified as "Pan and Bacchus"; links to very big version)] (Webshots )
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