BOURDELLE, Émile-Antoine

French sculptor, painter and draughtsman. After working with his father, a cabinetmaker, in 1876 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. In 1884 he was admitted as a pupil of Alexandre Falguière to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but in rebellion against academic training left two years later. He then moved into a house (now the Musée Bourdelle) in the Impasse du Maine; Jules Dalou, for whom he had the greatest admiration, lived near by. From 1893 to 1905 he worked in the studio of Auguste Rodin, who had a marked influence on Bourdelle's art.

His major works include 21 busts of Ludwig van Beethoven (executed between 1888 and 1929). As the result of his BaroqueGLOSSARYThe period in art history from about 1600 to about 1750. In this sense the term covers a wide range of styles and artists. In painting and sculpture there were three main forms of Baroque: (1) sumptuous display, a style associated with the Catholic Counter Reformation and the absolutist courts of Europe (Bernini, Rubens); (2) dramatic realism (Caravaggio); and (3) everyday realism, a development seen in particular in Holland (Rembrandt, Vermeer). In architecture, there was an emphasis on expressiveness and grandeur, achieved through scale, the dramatic use of light and shadow, and increasingly elaborate decoration. In a more limited sense the term Baroque often refers to the first of these categories. The development of the Baroque reflects the period's religious tensions (Catholic versus Protestant); a new and more expansive world view based on science and exploration; and the growth of absolutist monarchies. theatrical works, Bourdelle was appointed as the official memorial artist of the Third Republic.

In addition to his monumental sculptures and portraits, his oeuvreGLOSSARYThe complete body of works created by an artist. included watercolours, frescoes, and book illustrations, all of which bear testimony to the versatility of this French artist of the fin de siècle who was second only in importance to Rodin.