• Source: Jules Coutan

Jules-Félix Coutan (22 September 1848 – 23 February 1939) was a French sculptor and educator.




Life


As a student at the École des Beaux-Arts, Coutan was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1872; after his return to Paris he executed the fountain group France Bearing the Torch of Civilization for the Exposition Universelle (1889), one of the two prominent sculptural commissions for the exposition grounds. Later he taught at the École des Beaux-Arts from 1900, where he expressed his disdain for the researches of Rodin (as fumiste) and the Impressionist sculptors who followed him. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1905.
Coutan is best known in the United States for the sculptural group above the entrance to Grand Central Terminal in New York City. For Grand Central Terminal, Coutan was contracted to provide a quarter-size scale plaster model of the three-figure allegorical Transportation group, which he developed from 1911 through 1914. (Coutan never visited the U.S.) The carving was performed by the William Bradley & Son of Long Island City.
The small bronzes, some stamped by the founders Thiebaut Frères, that represented a constant source of income for Coutan and a genre typical of his output, appear with some frequency on the art market.
Among Coutan's students were Hippolyte Lefèbvre, Raymond Delamarre, Louis-Eugène Tauzin, and the Argentine sculptor Rogelio Yrurtia.




Work


fountain group France Bearing the Torch of Civilization for the Exposition Universelle (1889)
caryatids for the Opéra-Comique, Paris, 1899
reliefs Science and Labor for the Pont de Passy (now the Pont de Bir-Hakeim), Paris
bas-reliefs for the polychrome terra-cotta facade in the Square Félix-Desruelles, with architect Charles Risler, for Sèvres Porcelain, circa 1900
figure of La France de la Renaissance for the Pont Alexandre III, circa 1900
high relief, The Eagle Hunters for the facade of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris; also the plaster model at the Musée d'Orsay (1893–1900); bronze cast (1900), installed
Glory of Commerce group for Grand Central Terminal, NYC, 1914
the bust of Georges-Eugène Haussmann at the Père Lachaise Cemetery
Franco-Prussian War Memorial, Poitiers
angel figures for the José C. Paz tomb, La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
monument of Carlos Pellegrini Buenos Aires, Argentina




References



"Jules-Felix Coutan on artnet". Retrieved 2007-11-26.




External links


Jules Coutan in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Pierre-Jules Cavelier
• École des Beaux-Arts
• Victor Nicolas
• Jules Coutan
• École des Beaux-Arts
• La Recoleta Cemetery
• Mahmoud Mokhtar
• Pont Alexandre III
• Prix de Rome
• Pediment
• Exposition Universelle (1900)
• Société des Artistes Français
• Acanthus (ornament)