Jean-Baptiste CARPEAUX (Valenciennes 1827-Courbevoie 1875) Le Rieur Napolitain n°1 and La Rieuse Napolitaine n°1 Pair of terracotta busts Antique proof made between 1865 and 1872; standing on a flared base signed "Jbt Carpeaux" in cursive letters and stamped "propriété Carpeaux" with the imperial eagle; old restorations H. 49.5 and 50 cm (19 ½ and 19 ½ in.) Provenance : Private collection, Valenciennes. Comparative bibliography : M. Poletti and A. Richarme, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux sculpteur, catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre édité, Paris, 2003, pp. 146 and 148-9 n° BU 43 and BU 47. L. de Margerie, Carpeaux la fièvre créative, Gallimard/RMN - Grand Palais, France, 1989 New York, MET, 10 March - 26 May 2014, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, 24 June - 28 September 2014, Carpeaux (1827-1875), Un sculpteur pour l'Empire, E. Papet and J. D. Draper, Gallimard. A pair of terracotta busts depicting The laughing Neapolitan boy n°1 and The laughing Neapolitan girl n°1, Jean-Baptiste CARPEAUX (Valenciennes 1827 - Courbevoie 1875) In 1860, the sculptor painted a portrait of young Anna Foucart, the eldest daughter of his Valenciennes friend Jean-Baptiste Foucart, and reused the model several times, adapting it into Rieuse Napolitaine in 1863 and Rieuse aux roses in 1872. Here, the young woman is wearing the famous pane, the traditional hat worn by young Neapolitan women in the 19th century. The Rieuse also features an elaborate hairstyle with two small buns framing her face. As well as this very distinguished hairstyle and hat, a tribute to her first great love in 1856, La Palombella, it was the finesse of her facial features, her sparkling eyes and seductive smile that gave La Rieuse her name. Although the model dates from 1863, the bust was first presented in marble at the Paris Salon in 1867 (no. 649). Carpeaux decided to add a counterpart, the Rieur Napolitain. This work, produced during the artist's stay at the Villa Medici in Rome in 1863, is an adaptation of The Young Fisherman with a Shell (1857). The subject was a great success and Carpeaux decided to publish the model during his lifetime. This pair of sculptures would become one of the most emblematic models in Carpeaux's work and would be published by the artist and his family in three different sizes. The enigmatic smiles of the two figures, which we see on many of the artist's sculptures, became one of the defining characteristics of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux - nicknamed the "sculptor of the smile".