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Jacquemart, Henri-Alfred-Marie
Born in Paris on Feburary 22nd of 1824, Henri-Alfred-Marie Jacquemart studied painting under Paul Delaroche and sculpture under Jean Baptiste Jules Klagmann at the École des Beaux Arts starting in 1845. His debut at the Paris Salon in 1847 was a plaster group entitled Un Héron [no. 2106] and he continued to exhibit regularly through his final exhibit of Dromadaire Nubien in bronze at the 1879 salon [no. 5115]. He won medals for his submissions in 1857, 1863 and 1865 and was made Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in 1870. While his exhibitions were regular and exemplary, he is best recognized for his numerous state commissions. These include the 1858 placement of Sphinx on the fountain at Chatelet de la Victoire for a sum of 5900 francs, the placement of two winged griffons entiteld Deux Dragons Ailés in bronze in 1860-1861 at the Fountain of St. Michel for a sum of 20,000 francs, Deux Aigles in 1865 for the Opera for 3,000 francs and Quatre Lions for the Kars-et-Nil bridge in Cairo, Egypt in 1873 among many others. He contributed his model of Un Rhinocéros of 1878 for the Bassin du Jardin at the Trocadero in collaboration with submissions by Emmanuel Fremiet, Auguste Cain and Pierre Louis Rouillard. While the majority of his work centered around his specialty as an Animalier, he demonstrated depth and range with his spectacular figural works as well, namely his statue of Méhémet Ali for Alexandria, Egypt in 1872, his 1873 submission to Salon of Suleyman-Pacha [no. 2946], his greater-than-life size statue of the renowned Egyptologist Auguste-Édouard Mariette in bronze for a sum of 18,000 francs in 1882 and many others.
He traveled extensively in Turkey, Egypt, North Africa, the Mediterranean and throughout the Middle East, likely receiving the commissions for monuments in Cairo and Alexandria as a result of these travels. It influenced his work greatly and was reflected in his more exotic subjects and interest in Egyptian and Oriental themes.
His best known cabinet bronze models are Valet au Chiens, the plaster for which was exhibited at Salon in 1866 and was subsequently cast in bronze, and his Hound and the Tortoise, which was never submitted to Salon but became widely beloved and sought-after.
A large part of his career was dedicated to producing models for the renowned gold and silver-smith house of Christophle, the most notable of which includes his decocrative contribution to the Vatican's Bull Shrine executed for Pope Pius IX. While his last submission at Salon was in 1874, his marble bust of Mariette-Pacha was executed for the Place de l'Institute in 1888.
Jacquemart died in Paris on January 4th of 1896.
Artist Listings & Literary References:
- The Animaliers, James Mackay, 1973, p. 66-67
- Animals in Bronze, Christopher Payne, 2002, p. 408 [biography], various models illustrated, The Hound and Tortoise illustrated on back cover
- Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de lÉcole Française, vol. III, Stanislas Lami, Kraus, 1919, p. 191-194
- Bronzes of the Nineteenth Century, Pierre Kjellberg, Schiffer, 1994, p. 387-388
- The bronzes of Les Animaliers, Jane Horswell, Baron, 1971, p. 292
- Art Bronzes, Michael Forrest, Schiffer, 1988, p. 477
- The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze, James Mackay, Baron, 1977, p. 197
- E. Benezit Dictionary of Artists, vol. VII, Gründ, 2006, p. 681
