Henri Chapu

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.

He died in Paris in 1891.

The only full-scale reproduction of "Jeanne d'Arc" allowed by the artist is on permanent display beneath the rotunda in Ruffner Hall at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Notable works

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

References

*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