Jean-Pierre DANTAN (1800-1869) attributed to Magistrate, lawyer or politician, caricature known as portrait-charge, sculpture, plaster, H +/- 26 cm. Note: A master of the portrait-charge, Jean-Pierre Dantan, known as Dantan Jeune, combined satirical verve with a sense of accurate line. His busts, which oscillate between biting caricature and "serious" portraiture, reflect a rare acuity of observation: he magnifies physical or moral features to better reveal the truth of the model. The large collection of over eight hundred works bequeathed to the Musée Carnavalet by his heirs in 1888 - a mixture of charges and classical effigies - establishes this innovative sculptor as the benchmark of the genre, particularly for his caricatures of celebrities from the world of entertainment, which he said he captured "in a few moments".