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François-Rupert Carabin Bronze Figurine
$25,000
This French Art Nouveau bronze sculpture of a ballerina by François-Rupert Carabin features a romantic style leotard and tutu. The romantic ballerinas were among the first to develop the pointe technique, a style where the dancer balances all her weight on her tiptoes. This dancer’s feet are in second position, with her right foot straight and left turned out. Likewise, the ballerina holds her left arm up and her right arm out, called forth en haut. She is likely about to perform a pirouette, spinning on one foot while the other is raised at the knee, according to the romantic technique.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: S-20849
Artist: Carabin
Country: France
Circa: 1899
Dimensions: 8.1" high
Materials: Bronze
Signed: R.Carabin; the underside marked B and with embossed 1
Exhibition History: Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts 1899, Paris; Musée Galliera 1934-35, Paris.
Literature: Catalogue de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts 1899; G. Coquiot, Le figurines de Carabin, L'Art Décoratif 1907, rep. p. 29; Galerie du Luxembourg 98, rue Saint Denis, Paris, L'Oeuvre de de Rupert Carabin 1862-1932, Paris 1974, pp. 181, no. 89.
François-Rupert Carabin was a renaissance man of French Art Nouveau artworks, working in various mediums throughout his career. His bronze artwork features dancers across multiple styles, from the contemporary dance stylings of Loïe Fuller to the more traditional dance forms of ballet seen in this sculpture. This ballerina wears contemporary pointe shoes, a new development in ballet, less than one hundred years old at the time.