Alexandre Charpentier

ALEXANDRE CHARPENTIER (Paris, 1856-Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1909).
"Nymph".
Relief in bronze. Wooden frame.
Measurements: 24 x 38,5 cm; 34 x 47,5 cm (frame).

Charpentier was a skilled craftsman considered one of the great creators of bas-reliefs at the end of the century. This piece depicts the effigy of one of the muses of modernism, the ethereal nymph who lives immersed in nature. The woman is considered in Art Nouveau, influenced by symbolist literature, as a being of transformation and metamorphosis, and therefore is usually reflected with extreme fantasy, being associated with the supernatural and the unknown. The feminine is intimately associated with the hidden part of nature, with the mysterious and therefore attractive and seductive. The fragile woman, with narrow shoulders and stylized figure, like a nymph or sylph attracts man inexorably towards perdition. She is thus conceived as a contradictory figure, exotic and weak in appearance but demonic in essence.

Alexandre-Louis-Marie Charpentier was a successful sculptor, medalist, craftsman and cabinetmaker. Tempted by sculpture, the young man was forced to learn medal engraving at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He later became workshop assistant to the innovative medalist Hubert Ponscarme, developing an excellent bas-relief technique that led him to consider himself a "bas-reliever". Along with Ponscarme, Louis-Oscar Roty, and other artists, Charpentier fostered a resurgence of artistry in French medal design. Charpentier opened several cabinetmakers and designed numerous pieces of furniture. Today his work is preserved in the Musée d'Orsay.