Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse
(French, 1824-1887)
Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse was a 19th Century French sculptor and painter. A student of David d'Angers and briefly at the École des Beaux-Arts, his career is distinguished by his versatility and his work outside France: in England between 1850 and 1855 (working for Mintons), and in Brussels around 1871. His name is perhaps best known because Auguste Rodin worked as his assistant between 1864 and 1870. The two travelled to Brussels in 1871, and by some accounts Rodin assisted Carrier-Belleuse's architectural sculpture for the Brussels Stock Exchange.
Carrier-Belleuse made many terracotta pieces, the most famous of which may be The Abduction of Hippodameia, depicting the Greek mythological scene of a centaur kidnapping Hippodameia on her wedding day. He was also made artistic director at the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in 1876.
As a painter he produced many portraits and landscapes on the Côte d'Opale, northern sea-borders facing England, chiefly in the village of Audresselles. In 1862, Carrier-Belleuse was one of the founding members of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and was made an Officier of the Légion d'honneur.
He was also the father and teacher of Louis-Robert Carrier-Belleuse.
