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Nude Fisherboys

François Rude
(1784-1855)
Neapolitan Fisherboy and Other Works

I was sorely tempted to call this page “Rude’s Nudes”.

Rude, François (1784 - 1855)
French sculptor.

He was the principal French sculptor of the Romantic period whose most important work is the heroic relief of the Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 (‘The Marseillaise’) on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris (1833-6). Trained in the art school of his home town, Dijon, in the Neoclassical style, he moved to Paris in 1807. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1809 and won the Prix de Rome in 1812, but was unable to make the trip to Rome because of lack of public funds. A supporter of Napoleon, he left for Brussels when Bonaparte abdicated in 1814, remaining there till 1827. His first major success on his return to France was at the 1831 Salon with his plaster Neapolitan Fisherboy, which the State bought in marble (1831-3, Paris, Louvre) and which earned him the cross of the Legion d’Honneur. Although his work was firmly grounded in his Neoclassical training, and despite the popular success of The Marseillaise, Rude’s sculpture was considered too fervently Romantic for the conservative Académie and he was never elected an Academician. An enthusiastic follower of Napoleon till the end of his days, his final great work was the extraordinary Napoleon Reawakening to Immortality (1845-7), a private commission, the plaster (now in Paris, Musée d’Orsay) executed free of charge for another Bonapartist, Captain Claude Noisot, for erection as a bronze monument on his own estate (Parc Noisot, Fixin, France). Rude’s most important pupil was Carpeaux.

--from Xrefer (no longer available)

François Rude’s sculpture:

(1) Napoleon Reawakening to Immortality (detail).
(In other words, Napoleon was given a Rude “Awakening”.)
(2) Hebe from the Musée de Beaux Arts, Dijon.
(3) Departure of the Volunteers of 1792 on the Arc de Triomphe, Paris (detail).
(4) Aristaeus Mourning the Loss of his Bees, bronze statuette.

Neapolitan Fisherboy:
Images link to bigger versions, some of which are on other sites.
Right Side:


(1) The original marble statue in the Louvre, from Mary Anne Sullivan’s Digital Imaging Project. See Mary Anne Sullivan’s image use policy.
(2) A more recent view from a Flickr user. The statue has been moved betwen photos.
(3) Bronze reproduction, size unknown.
(4) Full-size bronze copy in the Museum of Fine Arts, Dijon. (NB: in the background can be seen a plaster copy of another Fisherboy by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux.)
Front View:


(1) The original marble statue in the Louvre - above, three-quarter right view
(2) The original marble statue in the Louvre - ahead, three-quarter right view
(3) Another view of the original marble statue, from Mary Anne Sullivan’s Digital Imaging Project. See Mary Anne Sullivan’s image use policy.
(4) The original marble statue behind a plaster replica of Carpeaux’s Fisherboy,
photo by Anonymous Benefactor.
(5) The original marble statue again, slightly dark.
(6) And not so dark.
(7) Full-size bronze copy in the Museum of Fine Arts, Dijon.
(8) Bronze reproduction, height 9½” / 24.1cm.

Left Side:



(1) The original marble statue in the Louvre.
(2), (3), (4), (5), (6), Various bronze reproductions, sizes unknown.

Back Side:

(1) The original marble statue in the Louvre, photo by Anonymous Benefactor.

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