Louis-Marie-Charles Mercier Dupaty

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Self-Portrait, 1808
Louis-Marie-Charles Mercier Dupaty

Louis-Marie-Charles Mercier Dupaty (* 29. September 1771 in Bordeaux , † 12. November 1825 in Paris ), called Louis-Marie or Charles Dupaty , was in the time of the First Empire and the Restoration of active French sculptor of Classicism .

biography

The son of the magistrate, Jean-Baptiste Mercier Dupaty (1746–1788) grew up with his three younger brothers, who later became the playwright and administrator of the Bibliothèque de l'Arsénal Emmanuel (1775–1851), Auguste (1777–1801) and Adrien ( 1779–1779 ). 1832), as well as three sisters in Bordeaux.

Dupaty, originally destined for the magistracy like his father and younger brother Adrien , devoted himself to the fine arts relatively late . He was initially a student of the landscape painter Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes (1750-1819) and the history painter François Vincent (1746-1816), but then decided on the art of sculpture and continued his training with François-Frédéric Lemot (1772-1827). In 1799 he won the Grand Prix de sculpture of the Institut de France with the work Péricles venant visiter Araxagoras .

During his subsequent eight-year stay in Italy (1803-1811), to complete his studies of the works of classical antiquity, Dupaty created portrait busts of Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), who moved to his lands from 1804 due to a falling out with his brother Napoleon retired to Canino, and his wife. Lucien sent him in 1807 the offer of his sister Elisa Bonaparte -Baccioci (1777-1820, Hereditary Princess of Piombino from 1805 to 1815) to take over the management of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara sculpture school in Carrara, which she had revived . Dupaty, who, according to Hector Sonolet, then director of the Musée des Arts de Carrare , created his Philoclete in a studio in Carrara, turned down this offer.

After his return from Italy, the institute accepted him as a member in 1816, and four years later he was appointed to the Ecole royale des Beaux-Arts (Paris).

Louis-Marie-Charles-Henri Mercier Dupaty died in Paris in 1825 at the age of 54, a few years after his marriage (1822?) To the daughter of the physician Georges Cabanis (1757–1808). From this marriage in 1823 a son named Georges-Emmanuel (1823-1826), who died in childhood, emerged.

Through his sister Eléonore Charlotte Marie (1774–1848) Dupaty was the uncle of the French geologist Léonce Élie de Beaumont (1798–1874). His descendants keep several works by the artist in their family residence, in Castle Canon in Mézidon-Canon in the Calvados department , including two self-portraits: a marble portrait bust (1811, signed “Charles Dupaty par lui-même”) and an undated marble statue, as well as one marble portrait bust of the artist's mother (1812, signed "Mme Dupaty par son fs C. Dupaty")

A bronze portrait medallion with the profile of the artist by David d'Angers (1788-1856) is in the Angevin Museum called Galerie David d'Angers .

honors and awards

  • 1799: Awarded the Grand prix de sculpture by the Institut de France for Périclès venant visiter Araxagoras
  • 1816: Appointed member of the Institut de France, later member of the Fine Arts Commission of the Seine department
  • 1819: Appointed officer of the Legion of Honor
  • 1823: Appointment as professor at the Ecole royale des Beaux-Arts (Paris)
  • ???: Conservator ( conservateur adjoint ) of the Galerie du Luxembourg

plant

Both in the choice of motifs, in which Dupaty preferred historical and mythological themes, as well as in the execution, his work corresponds to the current of neoclassicism, which is in the zeitgeist. The comparison with Antonio Canova and other contemporaries is obvious. For example, the figure of Kadmos shows the typical spread-leg position that is omnipresent in Jacques-Louis David's paintings - including the oath of the Horatians .

Even the now rather strange looking nudity of General Leclerc , clad only with his saber, corresponded to the canon of the heroic man valid in the First Empire. Larger than life and undressed, Antonio Canova (1757–1822) even portrayed the emperor in person in his so-called nu héroïque Napoleon as Mars (1802–1806, London, Aspley House) and General Desaix also appeared in Claude Dejou's (1732–1816) ) statue created for the Place des Victoires .

Dupaty was also a successful portrait sculptor.

According to his last wish, Jean-Pierre Cortot (1787-1883), who was his successor in the Académie, completed the equestrian statue of King Louis XIII. (Place des Vosges) and the monument in honor of the Duke of Berry. The latter was never built.

Wounded Philoctetes (1810)
Compiègne, Castle Park
Jean-Pierre Cortot: equestrian statue of Louis XIII. (after 1825), based on the design (1816/21) by Dupaty

Selection of works

Dupaty exhibited the following works with classical themes in the Paris Salon:

  • Périclès venant visiter Anaxagoras ( Perikles is coming to visit Anaxagoras ), awarded the Institute's Grand Prix de sculpture in 1799
  • Philoctète blessé (Wounded Philoctetes ), Salon 1810, Compiègne , Castle Park
  • Vénus Génitrix , stone, 1810, Salon 1812, marble, Paris, Rosarium des Jardin des Plantes
  • Ajax bravant les dieux (Ajax, challenging the gods) or Ajax poursuivi par la colère de Neptune (Ajax, pursued by Neptune's vengeance ), Salon 1812, ca.1831 in the Galerie d'Orléans
  • Pomone ( Pomona ), Salon 1812, ca.1831 in Paris, Galerie du Luxembourg
  • Oreste tourmenté par les Euménides ( Orestes , tormented by the Erinyes ), also Oreste poursuivi par les Furies (Oreste persecuted by the Furies), group of sculptures, Salon 1814
  • Cadmus combattant le dragon de Castalie ( Kadmos , fighting the dragon of Kastalia ) or Cadmus combattant le serpent de la fontaine de Dircé ( Cadmus combattant le serpent de la fontaine de Dircé (Kadmos, fighting the dragon of the Dirke's fountain ) Sculpture group, Salon 1819. The work originally set up in the Jardin des Tuileries was until 1836 in Paris, in the Jardin des Tuileries, from July 1848 in Orléans in the Jardin des Plantes there, from where it was transported in a very poor condition to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in the same city.
  • Biblis changée en fontaine (The transformation of the Byblis into a spring), Salon 1819, marble, 1831 in the Musée d'Angoulême, today in Paris, Musée du Louvre
  • Venus devant Pâris (Venus before Paris), 1822, (MdR) Galerie du Luxembourg

Among the numerous statues and portrait busts are to be highlighted:

  • General Desaix , portrait bust, temporarily placed in Paris, Place des Victoires , on the occasion of the Feast of the Republic in Vendémiaire 1800
  • Lucien Bonaparte , portrait bust of the Emperor's brother
  • Madame Lucien Bonaparte , portrait bust
  • Madame Mère , marble bust of the Emperor's mother, née Laetitia Ramolino, c. 1810, Salon 1812, commissioned work for Elisa Bonaparte, France, Dordogne, Cendrieux, Demeure La Pommerie, private collection. Copy by Lorenzo Bartolini in Rueil-Malmaison, Malmaison Castle, copy by an unknown hand in Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau Castle.
  • General Le Marois (1776-1836) , marble bust, 1806/11
  • General Charles Leclerc (1772–1802) , marble statue, Salon 1812, commissioned work for the French state, Versailles, Musée des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
  • Napoleon I , portrait bust
  • Louis XVIII en costume de sacre (Louis XVIII in the coronation state), portrait bust, 1818, commissioned work for the French state, originallyset upin the Chambre des Pairs , now in Paris, Musée du Louvre.
  • Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc , portrait bust, ca.1820, plaster, New York, Dahesh Museum
  • other portrait busts, including Madame Granger (marble, 1811, Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Mademoiselle de la Rue (Salon 1812), Madame Potter, née Vaublanc , daughter of Vincent-Marie Viénot de Vaublanc (c. 1820, plaster, New York, Dahesh Museum), Mademoiselle de Montholon , La Pasta (Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts), Monsieur Lethère , etc.

The artist also left the following, partly unfinished designs and plaster models:

  • Ajax foudroyé (Ajax, struck by lightning)
  • Jeune berger jouant avec un chevreau (Young Shepherd, playing with a kid)
  • Louis XIII , Equestrian statue, 1816/21, commissioned work for the French state, executed in marble by Cortot after Dupaty's death, Paris, Place des Vosges
  • La Vierge et l'enfant Jésus (The Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus ), 1822, Paris, former abbey church of St-Germain-des-Prés
  • La France et la ville de Paris pleurant sur l'urne du duc de Berry (France and the city of Paris weeping over the urn of the Duke of Berry ), group of sculptures, 1825, plaster model for the planned burial chapel of the Duke of Berry († 1820), Its construction at the former opera, the site of the Duke's murder, was finally abandoned. Shortly before his death, Dupaty completed one of the four marble reliefs (La naissance du duc de Bordeaux). Cortot created the four statues and three remaining reliefs in marble based on Dupaty's plaster model, which are in the Basilica-Cathedral of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) .

literature

  • Charles Gabet: Dictionnaire des artistes de l'école française, au XIXe siècle. Vergne, Paris 1831, p. 242ff.
  • Joseph Fr. Michaud, Louis Gabriel Michaud: Biography universal, ancienne et modern, L.-G. Michaud, Paris 1837, pp. 185ff.

Web links

Commons : Louis Dupaty  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Marmottan: Les Arts en Toscane sous Napoléon. La Princesse Elisa. Ed. Honoré Champion, Paris 1901.
  2. ↑ Cf. Geneviève Bresc-Bautier: La Politique des dépôts du département des Sculptures (1848-1939) online ( Memento from January 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.0 MB)
  3. ↑ See Annales historiques de la Révolution française. Numéro 324
  4. ↑ See Paul Marmottan: Les arts en Toscane sous Napoléon Ier. La princesse Elisa. Ed. Honoré Champion, Paris 1901.
personal data
SURNAME Dupaty, Louis-Marie-Charles Mercier
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dupaty, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Bordeaux
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1825
Place of death Paris