Patinated plaster bust of Monsieur de Galhau by Jean-Joseph Carriès
Jean Joseph Carriès was born in Lyon in 1855, and was taken in at the age of 6 by the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, after losing his parents. Mother Callamand, who was to be his "little mother", saw in him the genius he was to become and, after having placed him as an apprentice with the sculptor of religious objects of art Pierre Vermare, she endeavored to find commissions for him.
This is how the young Carriès, already noticed at the Salon of 1881, leaves on a trip to Vaudrevange, invited by Mrs. Onofrio, one of the patronesses of the orphanage, to stay with her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. de Villeroy, owner of an earthenware factory.
Monsieur de Galhau, uncle of Monsieur de Villeroy, was like a patriarch to this family who had kept the French spirit and language.
Carriès went there and was received in a benevolent way. He painted the portraits of his patrons, Monsieur de Villeroy and Monsieur de Galhau, as well as a medallion of the grandchildren of Monsieur de Villeroy.
The bust that we present here is a good example of the young artist's genius, where the intelligence of the model seems to inhabit the plaster.
A copy of this bust is kept in the Musée du Petit Palais in Paris.
