Neapolitan Fisher Boy by Carpeaux in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, June 2018

Neapolitan Fisher Boy (Primary Title)

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French, 1827 - 1875 (Artist)

Date: 1873

Culture: French

Category: Sculpture

Medium: bronze

Collection: European Art

Dimensions: Overall (statue): 35 1/4 × 16 × 19 1/4 in. (89.54 × 40.64 × 48.9 cm)
Overall (stand): 41 × 16 × 19 in. (104.14 × 40.64 × 48.26 cm)

Object Number: 60.17


Contemporary Italian subjects were extremely popular in 19th-century Europe, as they offered an opportunity for cultural fantasies concerning urbanism and modernity. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, France and other countries experienced cultural shifts in which their urban populations grew while their rural populations decreased. With these shifts emerged a growing fascination with “primitive” and rustic cultures, untainted by the concerns of modern life. As the French in particular grew to define themselves as an industrial society, they needed to create a cultural foil or contrast to their modernity. Italian subjects such as that seen in Carpeaux’s Neapolitan Fisher Boy were embraced for this reason. Case in bronze, Carpeaux’s youthful male figure is nude, placing him in a state of nature. As he kneels on one knee, he holds a shell up to his left ear, carefully balancing himself as he listens. He seems unaware of his nudity and captivated by the sensory and sensual experience of listening to the shell. Carpeaux studied at the French Academy in Rome in the 1850s and ‘60s, and claimed to have based this figure on a youth he observed in Naples. Because it captures a spontaneous and dynamic moment of human activity, the post of the youth is typical of Carpeaux’s work because it captures a spontaneous and dynamic moment of human activity.

Text from: www.vmfa.museum/piction/7898249-174292293