Alexandre-Louis-Marie Charpentier (1856–1909) was a French sculptor, medalist, craftsman, and cabinet-maker.

Life and work

From working-class origins and apprenticed to an engraver as a young man, he became a studio assistant to the innovative medallist Hubert Ponscarme. Along with Ponscarme,

Louis-Oscar Roty Louis-Oscar Roty usually known as Oscar Roty (11 June 1846 – 23 March 1911) was one of the most celebrated medallists of the Art Nouveau period. Biography Louis-Oscar Roty was born on 11 June 1846 in Paris. He first studied painting and scu ...

, and other artists, Charpentier advanced a resurgence of art in French medal design. Charpentier's patrons included

André Antoine André Antoine (; 31 January 185823 October 1943) was a French actor, theatre manager, film director, author, and critic who is considered the father of modern mise en scène in France. Biography André Antoine was a clerk at the Paris Gas Uti ...

, for whom he designed theatre programmes. Charpentier experimented with a wide variety of formats and materials—tin, marble, wood, leather, and terra cotta work, the latter executed by ceramic artisan Emile Müller. He opened several cabinet shops and designed many sets of furniture. Many of his custom designs for fixtures (doorknobs, door plates, window handles and the like) were subsequently mass-produced and commercially sold. Several of Charpentier's works are part of the Musée d'Orsay collection.

Social circle

Carpentier's artistic and literary social circle was perhaps as significant as his output. Among his friends was Constantin Meunier, with whom he collaborated on a monument of

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

, and he had a hand in the sculptural interiors at

Le Chat Noir (; French for "The Black Cat") was a 19th century entertainment establishment in the Montmartre district of Paris. It was opened on 18 November 1881 at 84 Boulevard de Rochechouart by impresario Rodolphe Salis, and closed in 1897 not long ...

cabaret. His work was also shown at the ''

Les XX ''Les XX'' ( French; "''Les Vingt''"; ; ) was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. For ten years, they held an annual exhibition of their a ...

'' exhibition in Brussels in 1893. In 1895, he was a founding member of the arts group ''Les Cinq'', which sought to apply new mechanical methods to furniture design. (The other founding members were architect Tony Selmersheim, designer Felix Aubert, sculptor Jean Dampt and painter Étienne Moreau-Nélaton.) Architect Charles Plumet would join in 1896, changing the group's name first to ''Les Six'' and then to ''Art dans Tout'' with the later association of Henri Sauvage and others. His second wife was his student, Élisa Beetz-Charpentier, also a medalist and sculptor.

References

Sources

National Gallery of Art online biography (pdf format)

online biography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Charpentier, Alexandre 1856 births 1909 deaths 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 20th-century French sculptors 20th-century French male artists French medallists French cabinetmakers 19th-century French male artists