| Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (French, 1827-1875)
The Spirit of the Dance, 19th century
Marble, H. 41 1/4 in. (104.8 cm)
Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina, by exchange. 99.11
This marble is a reduced and simplified version of Carpeaux's La Danse, executed in 1868-69 for the main façade of the Opéra in Paris, and now in the Musée d'Orsay. "Génie" is used in the sense of "spirit" or "motivating force." In sculpture, the representation of a génie permits the artist to give form to an abstract idea.
When it was unveiled to the public in the summer of 1869, La Danse provoked a storm of outraged criticism from critics and the public alike, who felt that the realism of the nude figures was indecent and was a moral threat to the French nation. Crowds gathered daily around the sculpture and demanded that it be removed.
Ironically, La Danse became Carpeaux's most popular work. Versions of the Génie figure from the group exist in three different sizes, primarily in terracotta and bronze. It is also known that marble versions of the Génie were produced during Carpeaux's lifetime using a plaster model. The present marble is undoubtedly one of them.
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