Edouard Joseph Dantan (1848-1897)
[Edouward Dantan, J.E. Dantan]

Pupil of:

Pils and Lehmann

Edouward Dantan, who was born in Paris in 1848, seemed to come into art as into a heritage. His grandfather, who had been a soldier under the First Empire, was distinguished as a sculptor in wood. His father, the eldest son of the veteran, born at St. Cloud, where he died in 1878, in 1798 became a sculptor in marble and left many remarkable decorative works and statues. His uncle, the younger son, also became a sculptor, and was famous especially for his caricature portraits in clay and bronze, and for his burlesque and satirical portraits in crayon of current celebrities and notorieties. Edouard Danton entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts as a student, and under the mastership of Pils and Lehmann made such rapid progress that in 1867 the Government commissioned him for some important decorative compositions. Two years later he showed his first picture at the Salon, a picture which had somewhat curious adventures. In 1870 the artist had gone to paris to volunteer in the army against the Prussians. He left his studio at St. Cloud locked up. When he returned to the town he found that the studio had been burned down during the Prussian occupation and supposed the picture had been destroyed. Some years after, however, it was by accident found at Versailles, rolled up around a broomstick. It had bene cut from the stretcher when the invaders sacked the studio, and carried off by some soldier who probably intended to keep it, but who afterward, when the Germans evacuated Versailles, forgot it and left it behind.

In 1874 Dantan received his first Salon medal, for a picture of a monk making a wood-carving, which the State purchased for the nantes Museum. In 1875 he won a gold medal at the Rouen Exposition with a picture which was purchased by the city for its municipal museum. In 1880 he took another Salon medal for a picture of his father sculpturing a bas-relief, which the State bought for the Luxembourg. This seemed to give a new direction to his talent, and he painted a number of pictures representing these artistic interiors, all of which enjoyed great success. "" represents the workshop of a maker of plaster casts. In the background are seen casts from the antique; one of a figure by Michel Angelo, and one of a head by Donatello; the mortar with its swinging pestle for pulverizing plaster, sacks of plaster, and the tubs, bowls, sieves, and the like used in the trade. The mould maker has been taking a cast from life. The nude model is perched on the stand, and the master is removing the first half of the mould from her leg, while his assistant holds the section section in place. These casts from life of arms and legs are very generally used in the preliminary drawing classes of the art schools. Dantan, as this picture shows, was a realist, but in the purest spirit. he enjoys high and profitable repute as a portrait painter also.

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