Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868)

A superlatively gifted figurative sculptor and designer, Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse was noted for an exuberant realistic style that aimed at universal appeal. Initially active in the decorative arts, in 1857 at age thirty-three, he began regularly exhibiting independent sculpture at the Paris Salon. Within a few years, he was financially successful and famous. Carrier-Belleuse regarded the creation of sculpture and the decorative arts as a commercial enterprise. He acted as the chief designer for numerous workshops ranging from the production of monumental architectural sculpture to porcelain and ceramic wares. To reach the widest audience through the mass manufacture of his designs, he transformed traditional processes and exploited new technologies. By the time of his death in 1887, he had established a popular figurative language that visually communicated the Second Empire’s mainstream cultural values in works of all scales, genres, media, and price.


Carrier-Belleuse portrays the famous opera composer, Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), at seventy-three years old, facing directly ahead, gazing off to one side, and slightly parting his lips as if to speak or to smile. The deep wrinkles and baggy pouches around his eyes, brows, and mouth testify to a lifetime dedicated to intellectual creativity as well to the character of a man disposed to laughter. Rossini’s distinctive features – beaky nose, jutting chin, and wide sagging cheeks -- are rendered with direct honesty. Even the carefully dressed, curled, slicked down hair is typical of the style worn by the elderly composer at the time the bust was made. By acutely capturing Rossini’s mobile expression, emotional presence, and physical charisma, Carrier-Belleuse immortalizes the vitality of a genius undiminished by the toll of years and creates one of the great nineteenth century portraits of old age.