Georges Diebolt
Encyclopedia
Dijon
Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
- 1861, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
sculptor best known for his publicly-commissioned monumental works, including the Zouave
Zouave
Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War...
and Grenadier on the pont de l'Alma
Pont de l'Alma
Pont de l'Alma is an arch bridge in Paris, crossing the Seine. It was named to commemorate the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War, in which the Franco-British alliance achieved victory over the Russian army on September 20, 1854....
in Paris and the Maritime Victory on the Pont des Invalides
Pont des Invalides
The Pont des Invalides is the lowest bridge traversing the Seine in Paris.-History:The story of this bridge started in 1821, when engineer Claude Navier conceived a technologically revolutionary bridge that crossed the Seine in one single reach without any point of support in between...
.
Life
Trained at the École nationale des Beaux-ArtsÉcole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...
in Paris, he then went to the Villa Medici
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
after winning the Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
in 1841, towards the end of Louis-Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
's reign. He came to be valued for works in an academic style which prefigured his 1841 plaster bas-relief La mort de Démosthène
Demosthenes
Demosthenes was a prominent Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics and culture of ancient Greece during the 4th century BC. Demosthenes learned rhetoric by...
(now at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts), or La Villanelle
Villanelle
A villanelle is a poetic form that entered English-language poetry in the 19th century from the imitation of French models. The word derives from the Italian villanella from Latin villanus . A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds...
, exhibited at the Salon of 1848 and remarked upon by Théophile Gautier
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
, who described it as
He also produced some more or less romantic paintings, such as Hero and Leander (exhibited in the "grande galerie XIXe siècle" of the musée Roger-Quilliot at Clermont-Ferrand). (See Deluge crdp.ac-clermont.fr)
His short career as a sculptor profited largely from public commissions under the Second French Empire
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
—he was much sought-after for monumental works and received the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, before dying at only 45.
Works
He treated with equal eclecticismEclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
religious subjects such as Saint John the Evangelist (placed on the first story of the tower of Saint-Jacques
Saint-Jacques
-Canada:* Saint-Jacques, a municipality in the province of Quebec* Saint-Jacques-de-Leeds, a municipality in the province of Quebec* Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur-de-Wolfestown, a parish in the province of Quebec...
in Paris during its 1852 restoration) and modern themes, such as the 1854 Maritime Victory on the pont d'Austerlitz
Pont d'Austerlitz
The Pont d'Austerlitz is a bridge which crosses the Seine River in Paris, France.-Location:The bridge links the 12th arrondissement at the rue Ledru-Rollin, to the 5th and 13th arrondissements, at the Jardin des Plantes.- History :...
.
He also produced pieces for public fountains, such as that at Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
with James Pradier
James Pradier
James Pradier, also known as Jean-Jacques Pradier was a Swiss-born French sculptor best known for his work in the neoclassical style.-Life and work:...
or some of the statues decorating the new Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
building inaugurated by Napoleon III in 1857. Also his are some of the works dominating the Palais des Arts et de l'Industrie
Palais d'Industrie
The Palais de l'Industrie was an exhibition hall erected for the Paris World Fair in 1855. The first building on the site with this name was erected in 1839. It was replaced for subsequent exhibitions in 1844 and 1849...
, built for the Exposition universelle of 1855
Exposition Universelle (1855)
The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Elysées in Paris from May 15 to November 15, 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855.The exposition was a major...
, which were re-erected in the Parc de Saint-Cloud
Parc de Saint-Cloud
The Parc de Saint-Cloud, officially the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, is a domaine national , located mostly within Saint-Cloud, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, near Paris, France....
when this building was demolished.
He gained his fame above all, however, by his participation in the decoration of the pont de l'Alma
Pont de l'Alma
Pont de l'Alma is an arch bridge in Paris, crossing the Seine. It was named to commemorate the Battle of Alma during the Crimean War, in which the Franco-British alliance achieved victory over the Russian army on September 20, 1854....
in Paris, for which he sculpted The Zouave and The Grenadier, commissioned to pay homage to the French army's part in the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
and inaugurated on 15 August 1858. Two other soldiers, the Artilleur and Chasseur à pied, were contributed by Auguste Arnaud
Auguste Arnaud
Charles Auguste Arnaud , known as Auguste Arnaud was a French sculptor.-Life:Arnaud was born at La Rochelle. A student of the École des Beaux-Arts at Angers, he first came to Paris thanks to a scholarship for his département, joining the workshop of François Rude...
. These monumental works (6 m high and weighing several tonnes) were removed when the bridge was refaced in 1963. The Zouave, to which Parisians had become attached, was re-attached to the bridge near the right bank of the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
and continues to serve as a flood-level indicator.
Contemporaries
Georges Diebolt was the contemporary of better known artists such as James PradierJames Pradier
James Pradier, also known as Jean-Jacques Pradier was a Swiss-born French sculptor best known for his work in the neoclassical style.-Life and work:...
(1792-1852, a friend of Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
), Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye was a French sculptor most famous for his work as an animalier, a sculptor of animals.-Biography:Born in Paris, Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period...
(1796-1875), the sculptor of animals, or Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux was a French sculptor and painter.Born in Valenciennes, Nord, son of a mason, his early studies were under François Rude. Carpeaux entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1844 and won the Prix de Rome in 1854, and moving to Rome to find inspiration, he there studied the works of...
(1827-1875, whose celebrated group The Dance dates to 1869). He also knew Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), creator of (among other works) the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
in New York and the lion de Belfort, and Emmanuel Frémiet
Emmanuel Frémiet
Emmanuel Frémiet was a French sculptor. He is famous for his sculpture of Joan of Arc in Paris and the monument to Ferdinand de Lesseps in Suez....
(1824-1910), who sculpted the Joan of Arc in place des Pyramides
Place des Pyramides
Place des Pyramides is a public square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. It is located in the middle of the Rue de Rivoli, at its intersection with the Rue des Pyramides and Avenue du General Lemonnier, at the western end of the Tuileries Garden....
and the Saint Michael on the top of the spire at Mont-Saint-Michel.