After Jean-Baptiste August Clesinger

After JEAN-BAPTISTE AUGUST CLESINGER (France, 1814-1883)
"Cleopatra". Rome, 1860.
Patinated bronze.
Signed and dated on one side.
With stamp of the foundry F. Barbedienne, and mechanical reduction Achile Collas.
Numbered.
Measurements: 23,5 x 47 x 15 cm.

In this representation of Cleopatra, made after August Clesinger, the artist gives an account of his ability to capture in bronze the sensual voluptuousness of the historical figure, wrapped in the mists of myth and legend.

Jean-Baptiste August Clesinger was a sculptor and painter. He began exhibiting at the Paris Salon of 1843, with a bust of Viscount Jules de Valdahon. His last exhibition took place in 1864. He sculpted many busts, including those of the actress Rachel Félix and Théophile Gautier. He made the statue of Louise of Savoy from the series of queens of France and illustrious women in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. At the Salon of 1847, Clesinger caused a stir with the presentation of The Woman Bitten by a Snake, a sculpture of attractive forms for which he had used a model from life, a work loaded with sensuality and that soon gave rise to scandal. The model was Apollonie Sabatier, who seduced the artist and also Charles Baudelaire, among others. Théophile Gautier was able to sum up his fascination with this piece: "Clesinger has solved this problem, creating beauty without hypocrisy, without affectation, without mannerism, with the head and body of our time, where everyone can recognize her lover and her beauty". In 1849, Clesinger received the Knight's Cross of the Legion of Honor and became an Officer in 1864.