Alfred Caravanniez, Victorine, The Sculptor's Daughter (1909)

ALFRED CARAVANNIEZ  (Saint-Nazaire 1855 - Paris 1917)
Bust of Victorine, the sculptor's daughter
1909
Terracotta
H. 45 cm
Annotated, signed and dated : For you my daughter / my heart made / my fingers work / Alfred Caravanniez / Puteaux 1909
Some minor chips

This terracotta portrait depicts the sculptor's eldest daughter, Victorine Caravanniez (1882-1965) at the age of twenty-seven in 1909. The previous year, Caravanniez had created portraits of two of his other daughters, Yvonne, an adult like Victorine, and little Agnès, still a young child. Today, the portraits of Yvonne and Agnès are in the Nantes Museum of Arts, although they are unfortunately a little damaged.

Caravanniez, probably the most important artist to come from Saint-Nazaire, a shipbuilding town about 60 km west of Nantes, had a difficult childhood. Abandoned by his father whom he never knew, and embarrassed by his alcoholic mother, he left home at the age of eleven to become a cabin boy. However, his talent was recognized by the captain of the ship, and after six years at sea, at the age of seventeen, he returned to Saint-Nazaire then left for Paris, but the lack of financial means forced him to return to Brittany very early. Five years later, thanks to a scholarship, he returned to Paris where he was one of the most gifted students of Aimé Millet and Jules Cavalier. The 1880s, 1890s, and the first decade of the 20th century saw a series of important commissions for the sculptor: Cathelineau (1881), The monument to the Count of Chambord (1888), The Colossal Virgin of Bizeux (1890), Anne de Bretagne (1897), Surcouf (1903), and The Glorification of Labour (1908).

The portrait of Victorine, his eldest daughter, has a beautiful intimacy which is also found in the moving dedication: “For you my daughter, my heart made my fingers work”. The result is always powerful when great sculptors represent those they love.


Thanks to Loup Odoevsky Maslov for identifying the subject of the portrait.
To find out more about Alfred Caravanniez see Loup Odoevsky Maslov “Alfred Caravanniez” published August 13, 2018, on his site: Chroniques de Saint-Nazaire : blog sur l'histoire de Saint-Nazaire