Shop
Museum
Overview
Exhibitions
Collections
Education
Publications
Clark Connects
Art on the Grounds
Study Center
Image Not Available
Zoom
Download
JPEG images are suitable for most presentation uses. TIFF images are suitable for publication purposes. When using images, please reproduce caption and credit information. For details or further information, click here.
If the file does not immediately download, it should open in a new tab. Once opened, right–click the image to save.
Audio
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
French, 1827–1875
The Three Graces
1872
The Graces, often three in number, were goddesses who represented such qualities as charm, beauty, and creativity. This small bronze is based on a monumental sculpture Carpeaux designed for the exterior of the Palais Garnier, home of the Paris Opera. The bolts on the figures’ limbs indicate that this was a bronze caster’s model, which could be assembled to produce multiple versions of the original. Such models were not intended for display and this one has a roughly finished surface that bears the artist’s tool marks.
Image Caption
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, The Three Graces, 1872, bronze. Clark Art Institute, 1955.976
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
32 x 19 5/8 x 17 in. (81.3 x 49.8 x 43.2 cm)
Object Number
1955.976
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Cambridge (MA): Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.. Metamorphoses in 19th-Century Sculpture. Nov. 19, 1975-Jan. 7, 1976, Cat. ed. Jeanne L. Wasserman, Harvard University Press, 1975. Ernest Chesneau.. Le Statuaire J.-B. Carpeaux: Sie Vie et Son Oeuvre.. Paris: A. Quantin.. 1880.. Léon Riotor.. Les Grands Artistes: Carpeaux.. Paris: Librairie Renouard.. [1906].. Paris: Galerie Manzi-Joyant.. First Atelier Sale: J.-B. Carpeaux.. May 30, 1913.. Stanislas Lami.. Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'Ecole Français au Dix-Neuvième Siécle.. Paris: n.p.. 1914; repr. Kraus Reprint, 1970.. Louise Clément-Carpeaux.. La Vérité sur l'oeuvre et la vie de J.-B. Carpeaux.. Paris: Dusset & Bigerelle.. 1934.. Nice: Musée des Ponchettes.. J.-B. Carpeaux 1827-1875.. 1956.. Anonymous. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: Oct.Dec. 1957." Art Quarterly 21, no. 1 (Spring 1958). Haavard Rostrup.. Modern Sculpture: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.. Copenhagen: Moderne Afdeling.. 1964.. Paris: Grand Palais.. Sur les traces de Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.. March 11-May 5, 1975.. "Acquisitions of Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Art by Museums." The Burlington Magazine 119, no. 896 (November 1977): 8025. Anonymous. "La Chronique des Arts." Gazette des Beaux-Arts 91, no. 1310 (supplement, March 1978): 1–100. Paris: Exposition Universelle de 1900.. Catalogue Officiel Illustré de l'Exposition Centennale.. Reprt. New York: Garland Publishing.. 1981.. Brooke, David S. Bouguereau's "Nymphs & Satyr," The Biography of a Painting. Exhibition brochure. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1985. Lovett, Jennifer. A Romance with Realism: The Art of Jean Baptiste Carpeaux. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine CLark Art Institute, 1989. Lovett, Jennifer Gordon. The Art and Craft of Nineteenth-Century Sculpture. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1994.