Art Minutes: “Neapolitan Fisherboy” by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

This is Neapolitan Fisherboy, or Pêcheur napolitain à la coquille, by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. What pulls you into this piece is the face. The boy's expression separated this work from other 19th century works, and critics at the time had a lot to say about it. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was born in Valenciennes in 1827 to a working-class family. Carpeaux followed in his family's footsteps of stonemasonry, apprenticing under a plasterer and learning drawing at a local academy. In 1839, the family moved to Paris, where he enrolled at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in 1844, and later apprenticed under the sculptors François Rude and Francisque Duret. A life-altering experience for Carpeaux came when he was awarded a scholarship after winning the Prix de Rome to study at the French Academy in Rome, housed at the Villa Medici. After a rocky start due to illness, he spent several years in Rome, touring Italy and gleaning inspiration from classical and Renaissance works he saw in museums, as well as people-watching on lively streets in an effort to perfect his rendering of the human form. But he was most influenced by Michelangelo. Carpeaux's more emotional and realistic style also set him apart as a premier sculptor of the Second Empire and Romantic Realism. Depictions of young fisher boys were trendy subject matter among 19th century artists, along with classical and mythological figures. The Paris Salon was fascinated with the exoticism of the Mediterranean and the perceived freedom of the humble fisher boy. When Carpeaux began making his own version of the fisher boy, he looked to his mentors, even asking a friend for the plaster head of Rude's seated fisher boy to, quote, consult and not to copy, for the rest of mine is done, so I'm not afraid to get distracted by the copy. The exact model for a Neapolitan fisher boy could have been a local Roman boy from Borgo whose grandmother had previously sat for Carpeaux, or a fisher boy he would have seen on a trip to Naples. As he wrote in a letter in 1858, my subject is taken from nature. It is a young fisherman of 11, smilingly listening to the echo in a conch shell. This smile was a break in tradition, and some critics thought it was so exaggerated that it became more of a grimace, but it became a trademark of Carpeaux's works. Regardless, it captures the spirit of children delighted and awed by the sound of the ocean, as well as their carefree and curious nature. The face of this boy also shows up in a number of his other works, from drawings to busts, that allow the viewer to admire and focus on the expression on the boy's face without distraction. Carpeaux's figures are known for being incredibly realistic, which is evidenced in the details of the boy's hands, feet, and torso. It's likely that Carpeaux would have studied the Belvedere torso, as Michelangelo once did, given the similar hunch of the boy's posture that creates folds in the skin and tension, though his musculature is obviously lither. The crouched position is a natural example of a gangly young boy posed contrarily, with his knees and elbow at opposing angles and his weight thrown off by his turned shoulders. Carpeaux created different versions of this piece, aside from the original marble and bronze copies. Some variations, like ours, have a net over the boy's thigh, creating modesty that catered to the more conservative French tastes of the time, as well as smaller copies that Carpeaux could sell more easily for income.