Crouching Flora

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

ca. 1863 · Terracotta · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Carpeaux’s first important public commission was to embellish the attic exterior of the Louvre’s Pavillon de Flore with a high relief of the Triumph of Flora, personifying the benefits of the goddess’s realm over spring and plants, and by implication, the benefits of life under the regime of the Second Empire. Numerous clay models of nubile young women led up to the final configuration in limestone.

Artist

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

Date

ca. 1863

Medium

Terracotta

Culture

French, Paris

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Purchase, Assunta Sommella Peluso, Ignazio Peluso, Ada Peluso and Romano I. Peluso Gift, 2010