Femme piquée par un serpent
/
Auguste Clésinger
(1814 -
1883)
This statue, along with Thomas Couture's painting The Romans of the Decadence, was the cynosure of the 1847 Salon, scandalising the public and the critics alike. Clésinger produced a suggestive image of a naked woman writhing from the pain of a bite inflicted by the symbolic snake twisted around her wrist. As the dimpled flesh at the top of her thighs reveals, he used a plaster cast moulded from life. His model was Baudelaire's muse, Apollonie Sabatier (1822-1890), a Parisian beauty who held a salon in Paris and was familiarly known as "La Présidente"; in lending her body to Clésinger she brought him unhoped-for success.
The practice of moulding a sculpture directly from life was violently criticised in the 19th century, on the grounds that it induced laziness and lack of integrity in the artist. Clésinger kept up excellent relations with Théophile Gautier, who orchestrated the scandal. For Delacroix it was just a "sculpted daguerreotype." Yet the generous curves that offended visitors to the Salon with their realism were combined with more conventional elements: the less expressive idealised face and the ornate pedestal covered with flowers like a bronze clock, making Woman Bitten by a Snake a perfect example of eclecticism in sculpture. The motif of the abandoned body was frequently copied until the end of the century, as is shown by Schoenewerk's sculpture, The Young Tarantine.
The practice of moulding a sculpture directly from life was violently criticised in the 19th century, on the grounds that it induced laziness and lack of integrity in the artist. Clésinger kept up excellent relations with Théophile Gautier, who orchestrated the scandal. For Delacroix it was just a "sculpted daguerreotype." Yet the generous curves that offended visitors to the Salon with their realism were combined with more conventional elements: the less expressive idealised face and the ornate pedestal covered with flowers like a bronze clock, making Woman Bitten by a Snake a perfect example of eclecticism in sculpture. The motif of the abandoned body was frequently copied until the end of the century, as is shown by Schoenewerk's sculpture, The Young Tarantine.
Rez-de-chaussée,
Allée centrale des sculptures
Artwork location
Artist(s)
Title(s)
titre principal : Femme piquée par un serpent
titre principal : Femme piquée par un serpent
Date
1847
Others accession number
Accession number
RF 2053
Description
statue couchée en marbre
Dimensions
H. 56,5 ; L. 180 ; P. 70 cm; pds. 800 kg.
Designation
statue
Inscription(s)
S.D. sur le côté de la terrasse sous le genou droit : A. Clessinger 1847
Place of conservation
musée d'Orsay
- jusqu'en 1863, dans la collection Mosselmann
- 1863, vente Mosselmann, 5 mars 1863, n°30, acquis par Bourouet-Aubertot pour 19900 francs
- de 1863 à 1869, dans la collection Bourouet-Aubertot
- 1869, vente Bourouet-Aubertot, 22 février 1869, n°30, acquis par Raymond Sabatier pour 23500 francs
- jusqu'en 1883, dans la collection Raymond Sabatier
- 1883, vente Raymond Sabatier, 30 mai 1883, n°98
- jusqu'en 1931, dans la collection princesse Galitzine
- 1931, acquis de la princesse Galitzine (45000 francs)
- attribué au musée du Louvre
- 1986, affecté au musée d'Orsay
Modality of acquisition
achat
Acquistion Date
1931
- Salon - musée du Louvre - France, Paris, 1847
- Exposition Universelle - Champ-de-Mars - France, Paris, 1889
- La sculpture française au XIXe siècle - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais - France, Paris, 1986
- Courbet - Clésinger, oeuvres croisées - musée Courbet - France, Ornans, 2011, p.83 et 139
- Sade. Attaquer le soleil. - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2014-2015
General bibliography
-
(dir.) Cogeval, Guy, Le Musée d'Orsay à 360 degrés, Paris, Skira ; Flammarion ; Musée d'Orsay, 2013, p. 29, texte par Edouard Papet
-
Draper, James David ; Papet, Edouard, The Passions of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014, fig.68
-
Papet, Edouard ; Draper, James David, Carpeaux 1827-1875, un sculpteur pour l'Empire, Paris, Musée d'Orsay ; Gallimard, 2014, fig.40
-
Ricci, Stefania ; Risaliti, Sergio, Equilibrium, Skira, 2014, p.120
Exposition catalog
-
Thomas-Maurin, Frédérique ; Delmas, Julie ; Boudon, Elise, À l’épreuve du réel : les peintres et la photographie au XIXe siècle, cat. exp. (Ornans, Musée Gustave Courbet, du 30 juin au 01 novembre 2012), Lyon, Fage, 2012, fig. 4, p. 13 (reprod. coul.)
-
Le Brun, Annie, Sade. Attaquer le soleil, cat. exp. (Paris, musée d'Orsay, du 14 octobre 2014 au 25 janvier 2015), Paris, Musée d'Orsay ; Gallimard, 2014, p. 302 (reprod. coul.) ; p. 327
-
Collectif, Splendeurs & misères. Images de la prostitution 1850-1910, cat. exp. (Paris, musée d'Orsay, du 22/09/2015 au 17/01/2016 ; Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, du 19/02/2016 au 19/06/2016), Paris, Flammarion, 2015, cat. 185, p. 177; p. 195 (reprod. coul.); p. 287 (cartel technique)
Summary catalog
-
Pingeot, Anne ; Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette ; Margerie, Laure de, Musée d'Orsay. Catalogue sommaire illustré des sculptures, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1986, p.100-101
Object type
Material and technique
Do you have a question where you have additional knowledge about this work? You can write to us to suggest improvements to the file.
Make a suggestion