DESESPOIR

Jules Aime Dalou was a student of Carpeaux and Duret at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he met Auguste Rodin. He greatly admired the lively style of Carpeaux, but was rather less enamoured by the more academic style of Duret who still sculpted in the more formal classical style. Dalou wanted to take Carpeaux's informal style one step further to capture real people in real situations but in a softer, more natural style. His influence on sculptors of the day, both in France and Britain, was immense and for many critics his works were easily the equivalent of his friend and contemporary, Rodin. Dalou loved sculpting genre scenes, often of women bathing, reading, sewing, nursing their children - scenes of everyday life. His works were usually sculpted in plaster or terracotta, which allowed him greater freedom of expression as he could re-work and model the damp material, thereby creating a more individual and spontaneous work of art.

His debut at the Salon was in 1861 with Dame Romaine jouant aux Osselets though he was later to destroy this work. His next publicly displayed piece was Daphnis and Chloe which in 1869 received much praise and was purchased by the State. Unlike many artists of this period, Dalou did not travel to Italy but instead to England, and from there to Belgium. Consequently his work reveals more Flemish than classical influences.

Dalou played an active part in politics as a Republican and as a result had to flee to London with his wife and daughter after the collapse of the Second Empire in 1871. He remained there for eight years, teaching sculpture at the South Kensington School of Art and successfully exhibiting at the Royal Academy Exhibitions. Dalou had a far-reaching influence on English sculpture through promoting his more natural and human approach to the subject. This next generation became known as the New School and included Alfred Gilbert, Alfred Drury, Hamo Thornycroft, George Frampton and Onslow Ford.

After the formation of the Third Republic, Dalou returned to Paris becoming the most sought-after sculptor of tombs and public monuments. He moved away from the intimacy of his English works and concentrated instead on monuments celebrating the greatest men and ideals of his era. To these commissions he brought a new realism and vigour. In 1883 he received a Medal of Honour at the Salon for his two impressive reliefs, Estates General, Meeting of June 23, 1789 and The Republic, and was subsequently named to the Legion of Honour.

The observer of this piece could easily be forgiven for thinking this work is the hand of Rodin. The modelling, simple yet very strong is reminiscent of Rodin’s prodigal son and this casting, with its use of splashes of green and red patina, is a superb example of Susse frere’s lost wax casting with dramatic patination.

Literature

E Benezit, Dictionnaire Des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Grund, Paris 1976,
Sculpture Passion, Salle des Arts, Sporting d'Hiver de Monte Carlo, Exhibition catalogue, 24 March-16 April 1990
Peter Fusco & H. W. Janson, The Romantics to Rodin, Los Angeles County Museum, N.Y., 1980
Michael Forrest, Art Bronzes, Schiffer Publications Ltd, Pennsylvania 1988,
Benedict Read, Victorian Sculpture, Yale, New Haven & London 1982
H.W.Janson, Nineteenth Century Sculpture, Thames and Hudson, London, first published 1985
Pierre Kjellberg, Les Bronzes du X1Xe Siecle, Les Editions de L'Amateur, 1986