Attributed to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875), France, circa 1860 Cain A lamb lies at his feet; resting on a fully modelled base H.26 cm (10 ¼ in.) Provenance: Sotheby's London sale, 9 July 2008, lot 162. Comparative bibliography: A. Middleton Wagner, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux Sculptor of the Second Empire, New Haven and London, 1986 A. Hardy, A. Braunwald, Catalogue des Peintures et Sculptures de Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux à Valenciennes, Valenciennes, 1978. A terracotta model of Cain, attributed to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875), France, circa 1860 *Information for buyers: Lot from outside the EEC: to the commissions and taxes indicated in the general terms and conditions of purchase, import VAT (5.5% of the hammer price) must be added. *Information to the buyers : Lot from outside the EEC : an import tax (5,5 % of the hammer price) will be due, in addition to the commissions and taxes indicated in the general conditions of purchase. James Draper has confirmed the attribution to Carpeaux after visual examination in 2019 in New York. James Draper confirmed the attribution to Carpeaux upon first hand inspection in 2019 in New York. Characterised by a fresh and intuitive modelling style, the present terracotta sketch probably depicts the biblical figure of Cain, son of Adam and Eve, moments after killing his brother Abel, an act fuelled by jealousy because God had preferred Abel's offering to Cain's. The figure is standing beside a rocky outcrop, which may represent the sacrificial altar, and at his feet he is standing on the ground. The figure stands beside a rocky outcrop, which could represent the sacrificial altar, and at his feet lies a lamb, his brother's offering and an indirect reference to his death. Reproached by God for the gravity of his act, Cain staggers beside the altar, holding his head in one hand and throwing his weight to one side. The boldly incised contours of his eyes and mouth transform his expression into a grimace of anguish. The particular treatment of the surface - working the clay with a flat-edged tool, pressing it into shape and incising details such as the fingers and facial features broadly and boldly - is strongly reminiscent of the maquettes by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1827-1875). Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1854, Carpeaux absorbed the visual power and gestural poses of Michelangelo in Italy, as demonstrated by his Ugolino et ses fils. First unveiled in 1860 in terracotta, Ugolino was subsequently executed in marble and bronze, earning him much praise. Carpeaux's sketches with a similar finish to the present Cain include the Pietà in terracotta in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (2001.199), the Jeune mère pleurant son enfant in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris in the Petit Palais (PPS1595), the Première robe longue in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes (S90-75) and, in plaster, the Cavalier assis, also in the Petit Palais (79392-25). His Philoctetes dans l'île Lemnos, a patinated plaster dating from 1852 and now in Valenciennes (S.90.16), not only has a surface similar to that of the present sketch, but also features the same striations on the base. The strong emotional charge of the present model and the use of emphatic movements to convey it are also characteristic of Carpeaux. Furthermore, the existence of a terracotta sketch that is not linked to a larger or more finished composition in Carpeaux's oeuvre - as is the case here - is widely attested (see the Valenciennes catalogue, pp. 108-109). The composition, which is unique in the iconography of Cain, can nevertheless be compared to the one designed by the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) in 1854 for the English porcelain manufacturer Parian de Minton, in Stoke-on-Trent. The setting of the two scenes is very similar, as is Cain's general pose, although in Parian's composition Abel's body is present, stretched out beneath his brother's legs, and the protagonist appears to be moving forward to look away, a pose that differs from that of the present sketch in both movement and feeling. In Paris, Carrier-Belleuse began to exhibit regularly at the Salon from 1850, a year that coincided with his temporary departure for England, from where he returned in 1855. The works he exhibited at the Salon often included busts and groups on mythological or historical subjects, which gradually earned him considerable renown and numerous patrons. patrons. Because of the possible link with Carrier-Belleuse's 1854 Minton version, and the enduring admiration for Michelangelo's compositional magniloquence evident in that model, the present Cain can be dated to around 1860, when Carpeaux returned from Italy. With its broad, swift and confident execution, it is striking above all for its sense of monumentality, both spatial and emotional, encapsulated in such a small composition. The choice of depicting Cain alone - already adopted by the Italian sculptor Giovanni Duprè in an 1846 marble in the Hermitage Museum - seems to have heralded the nineteenth-century fascination with Cain as an individual figure and his potential for exploring the expression of grief. This fascination is illustrated by works such as Joseph Caillé's seated Cain in the Jardin du Ranelagh in Paris (1871), Henri Vidal's standing Cain in the Jardin des Tuileries (1896) and Edwin Roscoe Mullins' crouching version (1899) in the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.