"l'improvisateur" 1877 - Félix CHARPENTIER

Félix CHARPENTIER (1858-1924) Flute player called "the improviser" Important subject in dark brown patinated bronze signed on the embankment. Colin foundry stamp on the base. Designed in 1887 Old edition. High. : 80cm. BIOGRAPHY: Félix Charpentier was born in Bollène, in the department of Vaucluse, on January 10, 1858. His father was a bricklayer in a factory where, in 1871, he would work in turn. At the age of 16, helped by local personalities who noticed his artistic gifts, Félix Charpentier left for Avignon where he took courses at the municipal school of Fine Arts. In 1877, he entered the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, in the studio of Pierre-Jules Cavelier and Amédée Doublemard. From 1878, Félix Charpentier regularly won competition prizes, including a silver medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889, and obtained several commissions. He exhibits every year at the Salon des Artistes Français. In 1888, he married his model Léa Lucas with whom he had a daughter, Francine. The city of Avignon acquires his sculpture “The departure of the swallows”. The work of Félix Charpentier, who excels in portraits and the representation of the nude, is inspired by ancient sculpture. He seeks in his sculptures to render the grace of female bodies and the expression of movement in male bodies. In 1900, Félix Charpentier was elected mayor of Chassant (Eure-et-Loir) where he resides and became an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1901. His notoriety earned him numerous public commissions, including: - Le Jeune Faune (Parc Monceau , Paris, 1884), - The Improviser (Town Halls of Bandol and Bollène, 1887), - Joan of Arc at the Standard (rue de la Chapelle in Paris, 1888), - La Chanson (Town Halls of Melle and Bollène, 1889) - The Wrestlers (Bollène, 1890), - A swallow's farewell (Garden of the Doms rock, Avignon, 1893), - The Sleeping Globe (1899), - Contemporary Art ( Grand Palais, Paris, 1900), - The Triumph of Concord (Esplanade des Quinconces, The Monument to the Girondins, Bordeaux, 1900), - Source Humaine (Parc Pasteur, Orléans, 1909), - Bust of Frédéric Mistral (Jardin des Félibres , Sceaux, 1911), - Monument to the painter Paul Vayson (Garden of the Rocher des Doms, Avignon, 1913), - Bust of Paul Saïn (Garden of the Rocher des Doms, Avignon, 1909), - Monument Jean-Henri Fabre (1914)., as well as war memorials after the end of the First World War (Bollène, Brou, Chassant, Genas, Dangeau, etc.). A tireless worker, he made more than 350 sculptures during his career.