Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (French, 1824–1887)
Diana Victorious, 1888
Bronze, 26 1/2 x 10 x 10 1/2 in.
Signed on base left : CARRIER BELLEUSE
1996.20

Diana Victorious is a small bronze version of the final, crowning work of Carrier-Belleuse’s career. He continually worked on the figure throughout the final years of his life, and exhibited it in various forms: a plaster version was shown at the Salon of 1885, and, after his death, a life-size marble version was shown at the Salon of 1887 and a bronze statuette at the Salon of 1888. Diana Victorious depicts the goddess of the hunt triumphantly standing atop her defeated prey (a wild boar). The work serves as a culmination of the artist’s style—something that he himself understood as he requested that the marble version of Diana Victorious (1887, Maryhill Museum of Art, Oregon) be exhibited at the Salon of 1887 together with the original model of his Bacchante (1863, Musée d’Orsay, Paris)—which had been purchased by Emperor Napoleon III in 1863, and thus launched the sculptor’s career. The evolution of Carrier-Belleuse’s style can been seen through this comparison between the mannerist elongation of Diana and the more robust figure of the earlier Bacchante. The scrupulous attention to detail (from the goddess’s hair to the boar’s hair) in the Diana further exemplifies the elegant refinement characteristic of Carrier-Belleuse’s oeuvre toward the end of his career.