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MODERN

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 517 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MODERN  See also:

FRENCH] This it is which accounts for the fact that romanticism then found so little See also:acceptance among sculptors . But in the next See also:generation the sowers of the See also:seed might see their See also:harvest: The pupils of See also:Rude, of See also:Barye and of See also:Carpeaux, allied by school sympathies—the little See also:drawing-school conducted by Lecoq de Boisbaudran, which, in despite of the studios of the See also:Beaux Arts, created a See also:group of See also:independent and highly See also:original artists—formed the centre of a distinct force which increased See also:day by day . See also:Young men, fresh from See also:Rome, persistently kept up the spirit of the See also:Antique . A See also:galaxy of learned and refined artists was represented by such men as Hiolle (1833-1887) (" See also:Arion," " See also:Orpheus "), Idrac (184o-1884) (" See also:Mercury inventing the See also:Caduceus," " Salammb6 "), Marqueste (" Galatea," " See also:Eros," " See also:Perseus See also:beheading the See also:Gorgon," " The See also:Rape of See also:Europa "), and Coutan (" Eros," " A Woman carrying Loaves," " A Sergeant-at-Arms," &c.), Lanson (" The See also:Iron See also:Age "), Longepied (1849-1888) (" See also:Immortality "), Peinte (" Orpheus charming See also:Cerberus to See also:Sleep "), Gustave See also:Michel (" In a See also:Dream," " Meditation "), See also:Caries (" Innocence," " See also:Abel "), A . See also:Boucher (" See also:Earth," " Au but "), besides Carlier, Leonard and Turcan (1846-1895)—soon to be followed by another generation: Puech (" The See also:Siren," " The Muse of See also:Andre See also:Chenier "), Verlet (" The See also:Monument to See also:Maupassant," " Orpheus "), Larche (" The See also:Brook and the Meadow," " Violets "), See also:Sicard (" Hagar and See also:Ishmael "), and Daillon, Escoula, St Lami, and many more . In opposition to these there stood a group of sculptors, young and old, who sought their subjects in See also:mythology, See also:legend, See also:history or See also:poetry, or merely in the scenes of daily See also:life, and aimed at presenting the ideal of their See also:time under its See also:external aspects, but more especially the deepest emotions of the modern mind . It was See also:Fremiet, with his striking and vivid conceptions, who led the advance with new and dramatic subjects: primeval See also:man and the fierce beasts with which he disputed his See also:rule (" A She-See also:Bear and a Man of the See also:Stone Age," " An See also:Oran-utan and a See also:Savage," " Gorillas "), or embodiments of the heroes of the past (" See also:Joan of Arc," " See also:Saint See also:Louis," " Saint See also:George," " Louis of See also:Orleans," &c.); then followed Just Becquet (1829-1907), the excellent artist who represented the stricken figures of " Ishmael " and " Saint See also:Sebastian "; Christophe (1827-1892), with his symbolical presentments of " The Human See also:Comedy," " See also:Fortune " and " The Supreme See also:Kiss "; See also:Aube (" Monument to See also:Gambetta," " See also:Dante," " See also:Bailly," &c.); A . See also:Legros the naturalized See also:English painter and sculptor, who executed some See also:fine fountains for the See also:duke of See also:Portland; Injalbert, returned from Rome (" Hippomene," " See also:Christ on the See also:Cross," " The See also:Herald ") ; and, younger than these, Desbois (" See also:Leda "), Dampt (" A Grandmother's Kiss," " Melusine "), See also:Alexandre See also:Charpentier, Carries, Baffler, See also:Pierre See also:Roche, Madame See also:Marie Cazin and many more . The disruption of the Salons in 1890 showed very plainly the See also:bent of this group, who seceded to the Champ de See also:Mars, where the leaders were See also:Dalou and See also:Rodin, and where Bartholome made an unexpected and original See also:appearance . Foreigners added a contingent of the highest merit, such as the See also:American St Gaudens, and, more especially, the Belgian Constantin See also:Meunier, affiliated to See also:France by their See also:early training, to say nothing of descent . Meunier especially, with his statues and statuettes of labouring figures—miners, puddlers, hammerers, See also:glass-blowers, and, the like—gave to his See also:art a keynote new to France, which found a response even in See also:academic circles . A broad democratic current was swaying public feeling .

The questions which turn on the status of the working man had become the See also:

programme of every party, even of the most conservative . Art being the See also:mirror of society, the novel, the See also:drama and See also:painting devoted themselves to the glorification of a new See also:factor in modern life, namely, Labour . See also:Sculpture now, in rivalry with painting, through which See also:Millet had immortalized the See also:peasant, and See also:Courbet the working man, also sought See also:inspiration from such themes; and at the same time the demands of the democratic See also:movement called for monuments to the memory and deeds of See also:great or useful men . Sculpture, under this modern tendency, assumed an unexpected aspect; its highest expression is seen in the See also:work of three men509 very dissimilar: Dalou, Rodin, and Bartholome . In See also:Belgium, as has been said, where modern social questions are strongly See also:felt, Constantin Meunier had interpreted the democratic impulse in a very striking manner, under the See also:influence, no doubt, of J . F . Millet . In France, Jules Dalou (1838-1902), with a broader view, aimed at creating an art which should represent the aspirations and dreams of this phase of society while adhering to the fine old traditions of the art of Louis XIV., stamped with magnificence and grandeur, but applied with graver, simpler and severer feeling to the glorification of the See also:people . He revived the older See also:style of sculpture, giving it greater See also:power and truer dignity by a See also:close study of life, supported by a scholarly and serious technique . In his " See also:Triumph of the See also:Republic," and the monuments to " Alphand," to " See also:Delacroix," to " See also:Floquet," to " See also:Victor See also:Hugo," and others, he strove to create a style apart. from life, to which he is See also:alien and indifferent, but based on life, the outcome of the needs of society, the impersonation of its characteristics, the expression in eloquent See also:form of its nature, spirit, and moral See also:idiosyncrasy . Treading the same path, though in a different step, is Auguste Rodin . He disregards every contingent fact; even when he takes his subject from legend or history, whether " See also:Eve " or " St See also:John the Baptist," " The Age of See also:Bronze " or" The Burgesses of See also:Calais," " Victor Hugo " or " See also:Balzac," he avoids all the conventional details and attributes of his personages to embody the very essence of humanity as expressed in the quivering flesh .

He, like Carpeaux, has gone back, to Dante and to See also:

Michelangelo to force the " See also:Gates of See also:Hell "—the subject chosen for the entrance to the Musee See also:des Arts Decoratifs—and to read the deepest mysteries of the human soul . His is the art of suffering, anguish and terror, of cruel and despairing See also:pleasure—a See also:wild See also:cycle of proud and See also:bitter See also:melancholy . All the efforts made in the past to infuse life into Art, all that See also:Puget, See also:Falconet, See also:Pigalle and See also:Houdon tried to effect, and that Rude, Barye and Carpeaux strove for in their turn—all this was See also:part of the endeavour of these their successors, but with a clearer purpose and more conscious aim . By See also:good hap or See also:providence they were greeted on their way by the See also:voice of the most devoted apostle who was to preach the new See also:doctrine, namely, Louis Courajod, the founder of the French sculpture See also:gallery in the Louvre . From his See also:professor's See also:chair in the See also:schools he cursed the See also:Italian intruders of the 16th See also:century for having debased French art with " See also:noble attitudes," extravagant gestures and allegorical antics; and he carried his pupils and his hearers back to the great See also:national See also:period of French sculpture, which, in the dark See also:medieval ages, had created the splendid stone images of the noble French cathedrals . A marked individuality now appeared in protest against academic traditions—See also:Albert Bartholome . He, after beginning as a painter, was tempted by sculpture, more particularly, in the first instance, by a wish to execute a monument to a comrade he had loved . From this first effort, carried out in his studio, without any school training, but with a See also:firm determination to See also:master technical difficulties and fulfil his dream, followed a broader purpose to execute a great expressive and vitally human work which should See also:appeal to the See also:heart of the populace . From this arose the See also:idea of a "Monument to the Dead " in Pere Lachaise . Bartholome had started without a See also:guide, but he instinctively turned to the great tradition of See also:Northern See also:Christianity, which his mind subsequently associated with that of the antique See also:race who had ever done most See also:honour to See also:Death, the people of See also:Egypt . Thus two currents contended, as it were, for the guidance of French sculpture, each claiming a descent from the historic past; one inheriting the classic tradition of the See also:Renaissance, of Latin and Hellenic origin, to which the French school, since the time of See also:Jean See also:Goujon, has owed three centuries of See also:glory . This is the See also:pagan art of the See also:South; its marks are See also:balance, reasonableness and lucidity; it was the composer of apotheoses, the preserver of the ideal of beauty .

The other, reverting, after centuries of resignation or of impotent See also:

rebellion, to the genuine French past which produced the noble See also:works of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries—to the tradition of See also:Flanders and of See also:Burgundy, which was smothered in the 16th century by Italian art—to the See also:Christian and naturalistic art of the See also:North, which renounced the canons of antiquity, and expressed itself by methods essentially human and mutable, living and suffering-appeals to all mankind . The immediate result of this antagonism was no doubt a period of agitation . The outcome, on the whole, is confusion . Still, however vexatious the See also:chaos of form and movement may be, it is Life, a true reflection of the tumult of modern thought in its complexity and bewilderment; it is the reawakening of sculpture . Monumental and decorative statuary found an extended See also:sphere through the See also:founding or restoration of public buildings after the events of 1870 . Memorial sculpture obtained See also:constant employment on patriotic or republican monuments erected in various parts of France, and not yet See also:complete . Illustrious masters have done themselves honour in such work . Dalou, See also:Mercie, Barrias, See also:Falguiere, and many others less famous executed monuments to the glory of the Republic or in memory of the national See also:defence, and figures of Joan of Arc as a See also:symbol of patriotism, &c., as well as numberless statues erected in the See also:market-places of humble towns, or even of villages, in See also:commemoration of national or See also:local celebrities: politicians, soldiers, savants and artists—See also:Thiers, Gambetta, Jules See also:Ferry, See also:Carnot, See also:Pasteur, See also:Claude See also:Bernard, Delacroix, See also:Ingres, See also:Corot, Millet, Victor Hugo, Lamartine and many more . The See also:garden of the Luxembourg alone has become a sort of Elysian See also:Fields, where almost every day some fresh statue rises up in memory of contemporary French poets . The funereal style of monument, in which French art was at all times conspicuously distinguished, was also revived in sympathy with that See also:general sentiment which regards reverence for the dead as a See also:religion, and gave rise, as we have seen, to some splendid work by See also:Chapu (the monuments to See also:Regnault, to See also:Daniel Stern, of Mgr See also:Dupanloup); by See also:Paul See also:Dubois (the monument to General See also:Lamoriciere); by Mercie (the tombs of See also:Baudry, of See also:Cabanel, of See also:King Louis Philippe and his See also:queen Marie Amelie) ; by Dalou (the monuments to Victor Noir, to Floquet and See also:Blanqui) ; and by many more, with Bartholome at their See also:head . The See also:cemetery of Pere Lachaise is indeed one of the best spots to visit for a See also:review of contemporary sculpture . While man has been diligently studied in every class of sculpture, more particularly in portrait sculpture, which finds a more See also:practical See also:adaptation to daily uses by a bust or small statue, such as See also:Theodore See also:Riviere was the first to produce, by medallions, or by medals, closely related to statuary, nature now holds a See also:place in the sculpture of animals—a place created, so to say, by Barye and carried on by Fremiet, Mene, See also:Cain, and, with even greater vigour and a closer study of See also:character, by Gardet (" Panthers," in the Luxembourg, " Lions " and " See also:Dogs," at See also:Chantilly, &c.); See also:Peter, Valton, Le Duc, Isidore See also:Bonheur, Peyrol, Cordier, Surand, Virion, Write and others .

Finally, the class of la petite sculpture—the statuette and small group—after See also:

long hesitation in the hands of the two men who first cultivated it, Fremiet and the painter Ger6me, made a sudden start into life, due in no small measure to the success attending the charming and pathetic statuettes of Theodore Riviere (" Salammb6 and Malth6," " Ultimum feriens," " See also:Charles VI. and Odette," " The See also:Vow," " Fra See also:Angelico," " The Shunammite Woman," &c.) . Riviere was wont to use—as Ger'eme did in his " See also:Bellona," and subsequently in his small " Tamerlane "—materials of various See also:colours, and even See also:precious stones and metals, which he employed with great effect . A whole class of art was not, indeed, originated, but strongly viyified by this method of treatment . See also:Claudius Marioton and Dampt, who always affected small and precious work, See also:Agathon Leonard (e.g. a table decoration of " Dancers " in Sevres See also:china), See also:Laporte Blairsy, Ferrary, See also:Levasseur, Belloc, E . See also:Lafont, &c., utilized every See also:process and every See also:kind of material—See also:marble and See also:metal, See also:wood and See also:ivory, enchanced by the most costly goldsmiths' work and gems . It would seem now that sculpture, thus endowed with new ideas and the most various means of expression, and adaptedto every comprehension and every situation, was fully on a level with the other graphic arts . What it had chiefly to fear was, in fact, the See also:wealth of means at its disposal, and its competition or collaboration with other arts . And this the later generations seem to have understood—the men who were the outcome of the two conflicting traditions: See also:order and moderation on one See also:side; character, life, and emotion on the other . Though very variously inspired by the facts or ideals of contemporary life, such young artists as Jean Boucher ("Evening," " The Antique and the Modern "), See also:Roger Bloche (" Childhood," "See also:Cold "), Derre, Boverie, Hippolyte See also:Lefebvre, Desruelles, Gaston Schnegg, Pierre Roche, See also:Fix-Masseau, Couteilhas, and others seem to show that French sculpture is about to assume a solid position on a See also:sound See also:foundation, while not ceasing to keep in' See also:touch with the tastes, aspects and needs--in See also:short, the ideal—of the day . Thus, while painting engaged the See also:attention of the public by. its new departures, its daring, and its very extravagance, sculpture, which by the conditions of its technique is less exposed to transient influences, has, since the close of the 19th century, See also:developed normally but with renewed vigour . If the brilliancy of the school was not so conspicuous and its works gave rise to little discussion or See also:speculation, it is not the less certain that at the beginning of the 20th century the younger generation offered the encouraging prospect of a compact group of sculptors who would probably leave works of permanent merit . Yet sculpture too had gone through a crisis, and been deeply stirred by the currents which so violently agitated all modern thought .

We have already spoken of its " See also:

state of mind," torn between the noble traditions of a glorious past which See also:link it to the antique, and the craving to render in its own See also:medium, with greater freedom and See also:fuller force of expression, all those unuttered meanings of the universe. and of contemporary thought which the other arts—painting, literature, the drama, and even See also:music—have striven to identify and to See also:record . But the acute See also:stage of tentative and incoherent effort seemed in 1910 to be past; inspiration had returned. to its normal channel and purely plastic expression . The powerful individuality which.had the most vital influence on modern sculpture in France, and, it may be added, on many See also:foreign schools, is that of Rodin . During the ten years which followed the Great See also:Exhibition in See also:Paris (1900) and the See also:special display of his works, his reputation spread throughout the countries of the See also:world and his fame was fully established . The state liberally contributed to his triumph by commissions and purchases, and in the Luxembourg Gallery may be seen about five and twenty of his finest works . His productiveness was unbroken, but it was chiefly evolved in relation to his first great conception, " The See also:Gate of Hell "; its leading features were taken up again, modified, See also:expanded, and added to by their creator . But besides the numberless embodiments of voluptuous, impassioned, or pathetic ideas—of which there is need to name only " See also:Les ombres " (the Shades) and " Le penseur " (the Thinker), now placed in front of the steps of the See also:Pantheon; several monuments, as for instance to Victor Hugo, to See also:Whistler, and to Puvis de Chavannes; besides a large number of portrait-busts . Enthusiastic See also:literary men, and the critics of the day who upheld Rodin in his struggles, more from an See also:instinct of pugnacity and a love of See also:paradox than from conviction and real comprehension of his prodigious and fertile See also:genius, have tended to give him a poetic and prophetic aspect, and make him appear as a sort of Dante in sculpture . Though his art is vehement in expression, and he has revelled in the presentment of agonized suffering and the poignant melancholy of See also:passion, it is by the methods of Michelangelo and essentially plastic treatment than power of modelling . His modelling is indeed the most wonderful that modern sculpture has to show, the most purely plastic technique, and this characteristic is always evident in his work, combined with reverence for the antique . Rodin made his See also:home in the midst of See also:Greek statues, a museum of the antique which he collected at See also:Meudon; and some of his own See also:late work, such as the male torsos which he exhibited at .the See also:Salon, has a See also:direct relationship to the See also:marbles of the See also:Parthenon—the Ilyssus and the See also:Theseus . It is the fuller understanding of these characteristics of Rodin's work, apart from some exaggeration of expression to which they have given rise, that has had the most valuable influence on the younger generation .

Nothing need be particularly noted as to the development of masters long since recognized, whatever See also:

branch of the school they belong to; such as Fremiet, Mercie, Marqueste, Injalbert, Saint-Marceaux and others already spoken of . The very distinct individuality of Bartholome, after asserting itself in his crowning effort the " Monument of the Dead," found very delicate expression in numerous works on a more modest See also:scale, nude figures, monumental See also:groups, and portraits . His monument to Jean-Jacques See also:Rousseau for the Pantheon (1909) is a fine example of his art . We must not omit, after the See also:elder generation, the name of See also:Alfred Lenoir, who particularly distinguished himself in portrait-statues by dealing successfully with the difficult problem of modern See also:dress, as in the monuments of See also:Berlioz, to Cesar See also:Franck, to See also:Marshal See also:Canrobert, in the bust of M . See also:Moreau, &c.; nor that of Gustave Michel, a spirit loftily inspired in his decorative compositions and figures for galleries, " Le reve " (the Dream), " La pensee " (Thought)—both in the Luxembourg Gallery,—" Au soir de la See also:vie " (in the Evening of Life), and " Automne." H . Greber, after some realistic works, such as " Le Grisou " (See also:Fire-See also:damp) and portrait-statuettes, as the tiny full-length figures of " Fremiet " and of " Gevine," distinguished himself in the Salon of 1909 by a statue of " See also:Narcissus " at the edge of a See also:fountain-See also:pool, very elegant and Italian in feeling . And among the younger men of the school we must name Verlet, Gasq Vermare, Ernest Dubois, and Larche, all employed on important works . It must indeed be said that in France, apart from the select committees which have, with more or less success, peopled provincial towns with monumental statues, the See also:government has always taken an See also:interest in encouraging the art of sculpture . Any considerable work of that class could hardly be undertaken without its support . The former See also:Council of Fine Arts in Paris foresaw the application of sculpture to the decoration of the See also: