Sea Horse with Shell, figure shape number 326

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse was one of the most well-known and successful sculptors and designers of the 19th century. His early training in Paris included being apprenticed to an ornamental metalworker as a teenager and a stint at the Petit Ecole. By the 1840s he began to supply models and designs for ornament and figures to manufacturers in a variety of fields, a practice he would continue for the remainder of his life. In 1850 he migrated to England where he worked as a designer for Minton & Co. and also, from 1852 until his return to France in 1855, the modeling master at the Potteries School of Design in what is now Stoke-on-Trent. He would continue to supply models to British firms, primarily ceramic manufacturers, through the early 1880s. He became increasingly celebrated as a sculptor from 1863 forward when the French Emperor Napoleon III purchased his work from the Salon exhibition held in Paris that year. In 1867, he was awarded France’s highest civilian honor, the cross of the Légion d'Honneur, and was made an officer of the Légion in 1885. Between 1864 and 1870 Auguste Rodin worked in Carrier-Belleuse’s studio and was mentored by the elder artist. From 1875 until his death in 1887, Carrier-Belleuse was the art director of Sèvres, France’s storied national ceramics manufactory.

The Seahorse and Shell model was one of several designs Carrier-Belleuse created for Minton in the mid-1850s. It exhibits the liveliness and dynamism characteristic of his work for the firm and his facility for drawing on 17th- and 18th-century forms for inspiration in realizing them. While this model is thought to have been intended for production in parian, or unglazed porcelain, as well as majolica, the brightly glazed version, as seen here, seems to have had greater success as majolica versions survive in greater numbers today. Tellingly, the model was produced for more than 20 years by the firm, as attested to the production date of 1877 for this example.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Sale, Christie’s, Glasgow, 23 September 1998, lot 31; purchased by Deborah and Philip English, Baltimore, 1998; given to the Walters Art Museum, 2024.