Charles-Alphonse-Achille Guméry (14 June 1827 – 19 January 1871) was a French sculptor working in an academic realist manner in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. Several of his figures ornament the

Opéra Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

most notoriously the group ''La Danse'', which was commissioned from him after the group by

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (11 May 1827 – 12 October 1875) was a French sculptor and painter during the Second Empire under Napoleon III. Life Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux en ...

was found unacceptable. Though he was born in the ''quartier'' of Vaugirard in Paris, Charles Guméry was from a middle-class Savoyard family established by his father at Passy.His father, Nicolas Guméry, was a schoolteacher. A student of Armand Toussaint (1806–1862) at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

in Paris, in 1850 he received the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

, the ''sine qua non'' for an official career as a French sculptor. He became a prominent sculptor of the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, who was awarded the

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

, 29 June 1867. When, on the morning of 29 August 1869 it was discovered that ink had been thrown over

' marble ''La Danse'' in the façade of the

, it was thought to have been a scandalized gesture by a member of the public because of the nudity of Carpeaux' figures. Charles Garnier, who had already commissioned from Gumery two gilded groups for the cornice of the Palais Garnier, asked Gumery to sculpt a replacement figure of ''La Danse'' to replace the disfigured Carpeaux group. With the Franco-Prussian War of the following year, followed by the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (french: Commune de Paris, ) was a revolutionary government that seized power in Paris, the capital of France, from 18 March to 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended ...

, during which Gumery died in Paris under obscure circumstances during the privations of the Siege of Paris, when many starved, and then the death of Carpeaux in 1875, the scandal was forgotten: the Carpeaux group remained in place and Gumery's ''La Danse'' is conserved in the

Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Angers The Musée des beaux-arts d'Angers is a museum of art located in a mansion, the "logis Barrault", place Saint-Éloi near the historic city of Angers. Building The museum is part of the Toussaint complex, which includes the garden of Fine Arts, ...

.Gumery Family of French Artists & Sculptors
/ref> Gomery is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, where his gravestone is surmounted by a bust sculpted by his pupil

Jean Gautherin Jean Gautherin (28 December 1840 – 21 July 1890) was a French sculptor particularly known for his marble and bronze statues commissioned by the City of Paris. Gautherin was born to a family of peasant farmers in Savault, a hamlet in the commune ...

Selected works

His work in

includes : * the gilded figural groups ''L'Harmonie'' and ''La Poésie'' crowning the end pavilions of the Palais Garnier * ''Circe'' on the south façade of the Cour Carrée in the Louvre palace, 1860 * the figure of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

at the Gare du Nord, circa 1846 * the figure of ''Temperance'' in the

Fontaine Saint-Michel The Fontaine Saint-Michel () is a monumental fountain located in Place Saint-Michel in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. It was constructed in 1858–1860 during the French Second Empire by the architect Gabriel Davioud. It has been listed s ...

, 1858–60

Gallery

Image:Harmony Gumery Palais Garnier.jpg, ''L'Harmonie'' (1869),

. gilt copper

electrotype Electrotyping (also galvanoplasty) is a chemical method for forming metal parts that exactly reproduce a model. The method was invented by Moritz von Jacobi in Russia in 1838, and was immediately adopted for applications in printing and several o ...

. Image:Poetry Gumery Palais Garnier.jpg, ''La Poésie'' Image:ChamberyPalaisDeJustice.jpg, ''

Antoine Favre Antoine Favre, baron of Pérouges (5 October 1557 – 1624) was a Savoisian nobleman and jurist. Favre was born in Bourg-en-Bresse. After studies in Paris and Turin, he practiced law in Chambéry. He was a member of the Savoyard court there ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gumery, Charles-Alphonse-Achille French architectural sculptors Prix de Rome for sculpture 1827 births 1871 deaths École des Beaux-Arts alumni Burials at Montmartre Cemetery 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French male artists