The French sculptor Etienne Maurice Falcone has a special place in the history of art. First of all, he is known as the author of the monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg - a monument that has no equal in world sculpture. Falcone was not only an outstanding artist, but also a theoretical writer. This man possessed a multifaceted bright talent and was a master of a huge range. The work of Etienne Maurice Falcone proceeded in an atmosphere of pre-revolutionary sentiment and debate about new ways of developing art. We will talk about the life of the sculptor and his main works in the article.
Biography
Etienne Maurice Falcone was born in Paris on 12.12.1716. His family came from the French province of Savoy, his mother was the daughter of a shoemaker, and his father was an apprentice carpenter. Like other children from the third estate, Etienne had a poor childhood, from an early age he had to earn his bread. No wonder that at eighteen he could barely write and read. Yes, and I learned this on my own. Parents believed that the craftsman did not need so much knowledge: the main thing is that he owned the craft, was honest and did not forget to go to church on Sundays.
For the first time, Falcone learned to handle sculptural material in the workshop of his uncle, who was a marble worker. The future sculptor already had dexterous hands and drew well. It is not known how Etienne Falcone's biography would have developed if he had once not had the courage to show his drawings to Jean-Louis Lemoine, the then famous court sculptor and portrait painter. The young man took the first image that came across and went to the studio.
Under the wing of Lemoine
Later in his memoirs, Falcone described the first meeting with Jean-Louis. When he knocked on the door, a short old man appeared on the threshold in a work coat, all in plaster and clay. Etienne, without saying a word, handed him his drawing. The old man examined the image for several minutes, and then asked if the guy had other work and how long he had been doing it.
On the same day, Etienne Falcone was received at the Lemoine atelier as an assistant. He had monstrous gaps in education, but he had great curiosity and a wonderful memory. These qualities, along with the habit of independent judgments and philosophical understanding of everything that happened, contributed to the fact that Falcone later turned into one of the most original masters of art.
However, then this was still far away. Jean-Louis taught the young man in the old fashion, gave as many exercises as possible. For weeks and months, Etienne Falcone copied ancient engravings, copied ancient Roman ornaments, studied natures, imitated antique busts, heads and torsos. Together with Lemoine, the young sculptor participated in the decoration of the Versailles park, and there he first saw the works of Pierre Puget, an outstanding French sculptor.
Until his death, Jean-Louis Lemoine remained a close friend and teacher of Falcone, who, in turn, forever retained a sense of respect and gratitude to the mentor.
Paris Academy
Etienne Maurice spent almost his whole life in Paris, and this city became for him a school of art craftsmanship. Mainly talent Falcone developed on the basis of national culture. In 1744, at the age of twenty-eight years, he decided to enter the Paris Academy of Fine Arts and for this he completed his first plaster work, Milon of Croton.
In this sculpture, Etienne Maurice Falcone reflected the theatricality and dynamics inherent in Baroque plastic, but at the same time showed a classic clarity of form. Academy members and the public took the work coldly, but nonetheless he was accepted into the educational institution.
Ten years later, for transferring Milon of Croton to marble, Falcone received the title of academician, which gave him a number of certain privileges: the right to receive an annual pension and royal orders, the provision of a free workshop in the Louvre, and the award of the title of nobleman.
Work at Sevres Manufactory
From 1753 and over the next ten years, Etienne Maurice took part in the reconstruction and decoration of the church of St. Roch. At the same time, in 1757, he began working at the Sevres Porcelain Manufactory as the director of a fashion workshop. There, the sculptor met a French painter, decorator and engraver Francois Boucher. First Falconet made models according to his drawings, and then began to work independently. It was during this period that he managed to identify the special artistic properties of French porcelain and subsequently brilliantly used them.
The patroness of the manufactory was the Marquise de Pompadour and for her the sculptor created many figurines from biscuit depicting mythological characters. These works of Etienne Maurice Falcone immediately became fashionable and aroused the delight of the public.
"Threatening Cupid"
In 1757, the Marquis de Pompadour instructed the sculptor to fulfill the statue of the god of love Amur to decorate the boudoir in her Paris mansion. The ancient myth of Cupid was especially popular in eighteenth-century French art.
Etienne Falcone portrayed Amur as a cheerful playful child, whose appearance breathes spontaneity and sincere joy. He sits at ease on a cloud and, smiling and as if warning or threatening, prepares to pull out a fatal arrow from a quiver to put it into the intended victim. A cunning look, a soft tilt of the head, a finger attached to the lips and a crafty smile - all this gives vividness to the composition.
The sculptor conveyed the charm of a chubby children's body and the natural childish grace with modest, but very expressive means. Falcone worked the marble so perfectly that curly soft hair and Amur's silky skin are perceived as if illusory. With the same skill, the sculptor depicted wings with delicate feathers behind the back of a child and the curved petals of a rose lying at his feet.
The seeming lightness and simplicity with which Etienne Maurice solved the compositional problem speak of his high professionalism. By the power of his talent, Falcone made a cold mold out of cold marble, filled with life breath.
"Bather"
No less attention and admiration in the salon of 1757 was awarded to the statue “Bather”, depicting a nymph who plunged her legs into the water. This work by Etienne Falcone is made very elegantly, without the slightest hint of vulgarity.
Flowing and smooth lines of the figure of a girl with small breasts and sloping shoulders. She stands, leaning on a high stump, and, slightly holding a light tissue at her thigh, tries water with her fingertips. Due to the slight tilt of the head, the flexible line of the bather’s neck is beautifully emphasized, and her face retains children's roundness. So, it would seem, the usual features of the girl under the cutter of the master become poetically expressive.
"Winter"
The true masterpiece of Falcone was the statue "Winter", which he began in the mid 1750s. commissioned by Madame de Pompadour and completed in 1771. The sculpture depicts a seated girl personifying winter. Her smoothly falling robe, like a snow cover, covers flowers at her feet. The appearance of the young lady is full of dreamy quiet sadness, the embodiment of youth, purity and some special feminine charm. The zodiac signs depicted on the sides of the pedestal, as well as the bowl at the feet of the girl, which has cracked from frozen water, are an allusion of winter.
In the statue "Winter" Etienne Falcone brilliantly combined the features of the Rococo style that prevailed at that time, and his realistic aspirations. The girl’s appearance is expressed expressively and freely; there is vitality and spontaneity in it. Thanks to the rich play of shadow and light, as well as confident and soft modeling of marble, the illusion of a living surface of the body is achieved.
Subsequently, the sculptor in his works more than once returned to the images of naked women and created many variations of the image of the female body, which conquered with a subtle perception of nature and poetry.
Classicism trends
In the early 1760s. in the work of Falcone classicism began to be traced. The sculptor was torn between the requests of the courtyard to carry out aesthetic and elegant works and his own desire to create moralizing serious sculptures. At first, the features of classicism were seen in the statue "Tender sadness." They were also characteristic of Pygmalion and Galatea - a work that in the salon of 1763 caused a triumph.
In 1764, the Marquise de Pompadour died, and Falcone lost his main customer and patron. In 1765, Etienne turned 49 years old, but he was not satisfied with his work. All his life, the sculptor dreamed of creating a monumental work, and soon he succeeded.
"Bronze Horseman"
Etienne Maurice Falcone realized his dream not just anywhere, but in Russia. On the advice of the philosopher Denis Didro, with whom the sculptor made friends as early as 1750, Empress Catherine the Second invited him to complete an equestrian monument to Peter the Great in St. Petersburg. The sculptor made the initial wax sketch back in Paris: the hero on a horse jumps over a rock, which symbolizes the obstacles that have been overcome.
Falcone wanted to create a composition that was deep in concept: not only a monument to the ruler, but also a monument to the entire Petrine era; not only a statue of the commander, but also the image of a man who inextricably linked fate with the history of his people.
Work on the monument to Peter I
In October 1766, the sculptor arrived in Russia and began work on a plaster model of the statue. Along with Falcone came his eighteen-year-old apprentice Marie Ann Collot and carver Fontaine. The sculptor thought that he would leave France for eight years - that’s exactly the period stipulated by the contract with Catherine for the execution, casting and installation of the Bronze Horseman. Etienne Falcone had no doubt that he would meet the deadline. However, the circumstances were different.
At first everything went well. The empress approved both the design of the monument and the laconic inscription on it, composed by the sculptor: "Catherine the Second erected Peter the Great." True, the ruler removed the word “erected” from the inscription, making it even simpler.
A year and a half, the master selflessly worked on the model, clarifying the details of the composition and scrupulously calculating the proportionality of the parts. Landing, gestures, the rider's face - everything was performed with maximum expressiveness. Falcone lived only with this work and put all his skills and all the heat of his soul into it. Finally, May Day of 1770 came when the plaster model of the sculpture was put on public display.
Casting the statue of Peter
The President of the Academy of Arts, Lieutenant General Betskoi criticized the work of Etienne Falcone and literally plagued the sculptor with his comments. The reason for the hostility was the fact that Falcone still initially refused to execute the detailed design of the monument to Betsky.
In search of support, the master turned to Catherine, but she was less and less interested in the progress of work and less and less reacted to his complaints. Time passed, and the casting of the statue did not begin. By the summer of 1774 it turned out that Benoit Hersman, invited as a foundry worker, was not able to cope with the task set by Etienne, after which he himself decided to take a cast of the monument. At the age of 58, Falcone sat down for textbooks and began to study the description of the work on the casting of horse statues.
Then, together with the assistant Emelyan Khaylov, the sculptor did not leave the workshop for hours. The first casting was not entirely successful: in the process, the flame was too strong and incinerated the top of the mold. The head of the horseman suffered, the sculptor remade it three times, but could not create an image that corresponded to his plan. The situation was saved by Marie Ann Collot: the student brilliantly performed what her teacher did not succeed for some reason.
And then the day came when the work was finished. Etienne Maurice Falcone's “Bronze Horseman”, as Pushkin later called the sculpture, could only be strengthened on a pedestal that had long been prepared on Senate Square.
Return to France
The great master did not wait for the installation of the statue. Catherine lost interest in Falcona, relations with Betsky were spoiled, and he could not continue to stay in Petersburg. Etienne collected drawings and books and after twelve years in Russia he returned to his homeland. From now on, he no longer created sculptures, but devoted himself entirely to writing treatises on art.
The monument to Peter I was officially opened on Senate Square on 08/07/1782. The statue of the tsar, the pacifying horse, on a pedestal of solid stone in the form of a wave, an expressive silhouette loomed against the background of St. Petersburg and appealed to people. Subsequently, the Bronze Horseman became a particle of the city and one of its most revered masterpieces.
Falconet was not invited to the opening, however, then the Empress sent him two medals minted in honor of such an event. Having received them, the sculptor burst into tears: he already understood that he had completed the work of his whole life.
Six months later, in May 1783, Etienne Maurice Falcone suffered an apoplexy stroke, which led to paralysis. In the next ten years, the sculptor was bedridden. His care was carried out by Marie Ann Collot, who by that time had married the son of the sculptor Pierre Etienne Falcone. 01.24.1791 in Paris, the life of the great master was cut short.
Falconet had an amazing fate. He came to Russia, created a brilliant monument, left and died. Now in France he is almost forgotten. But in our country this sculptor will always be remembered, because he created the symbol of the Russian state with his hands. The horseman on horseback. The man who harnessed the elements.