Le Grenouillard (Frog-Man)
Medium
Patinated plaster
Dimensions
34 × 47 × 43 cm (13 1/2 × 18 1/2 × 17 in.)
Classification
statuette
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
190409
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
During his short but brilliant career, Jean-Joseph Carriès explored alternative sculptural media such as ceramics and plaster, which were considered vastly inferior to marble and bronze. Half man, half amphibian, this squat figure shares the bulging eyes and elongated spine of the frogs that surround him. For this unusual work, Carriès drew inspiration from two disparate sources: The merging of human and animal features nods to Darwin’s theory of evolution, first published in the mid-1800s. The ...