
Jean-Baptiste Clésinger (1814-1883) was a French sculptor who caused a sensation at the 1847 Paris Salon with his marble Woman Bitten by a Snake, a reclining nude of startling realism. Born in Besançon, son of a sculptor, he studied in Rome and Paris. The Salon piece (modeled from a body cast of his lover, Apollonie Sabatier) was praised for its lifelike flesh and condemned for bypassing genuine sculptural skill.
Clésinger married George Sand's daughter Solange, linking him to Parisian literary circles, though the marriage ended badly. He produced portrait busts, equestrian monuments, and Orientalist subjects throughout a prolific career, but never quite recaptured the scandal and celebrity of his debut.
2 sculptures catalogued with museum locations. Browse all sculptures
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