Prix de Rome Laureates
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Premier Grand Prix de Rome in sculpture, 1854
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux wins the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in sculpture, 1854, and becomes a resident of the French Academy in Rome, at the Villa Medici.
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875) won the Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1854. A resident of the Villa Medici from 1856 to 1861, he conceived there “Ugolino and His Sons”, a feverish group that broke with academicism and heralded his style.
Back in Paris he became the most sought-after sculptor of the Second Empire: “The Dance”, for the façade of Garnier’s Opéra, caused a scandal with its sensuality, and he portrayed the imperial court.
Dead at forty-seven, he is one of the great names of nineteenth-century French sculpture. His works are in the Musée d’Orsay, the Petit Palais and the Fine Arts Museum of Valenciennes, his native town.
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