Did you know that La Danse Sculpture once caused a scandal? It stands on the facade of the Opéra Garnier. Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux created La Danse Sculpture in 1868. Charles Garnier, the opera’s architect, commissioned four sculptures for the building’s facade. Carpeaux, Garnier’s friend, was chosen to create a piece about dance.
For three years, Carpeaux sketched and modeled. He sought inspiration from dancers and actresses of the Palais-Royal. La Danse Sculpture features a joyful young man playing a tambourine. Women dance around him in a whirling farandole. Carpeaux aimed to capture the feeling of movement. He used both circular and vertical motion to achieve this.
The public first saw La Danse Sculpture in 1869. Its unveiling sparked immediate controversy. People were shocked by the nakedness of the figures. Some felt it was inappropriate for a public monument. One opera lover said his family could no longer visit. He felt it marked the building as a “bad place”.
Someone threw black ink on La Danse Sculpture. This act of vandalism occurred in August 1869. The original sculpture still bears traces of this incident. The public demanded the sculpture’s removal. Garnier suggested moving it to the ballet foyer. However, the dancers opposed this idea and signed a petition.
Napoleon III almost ordered a new sculpture. Charles Gumery was to create the replacement. The Franco-Prussian War in 1870 intervened. This war saved Carpeaux’s work.
In 1964, the original La Danse Sculpture was moved. It went to the Louvre Museum to protect it from pollution. A copy by Jean Juge replaced it on the Opéra Garnier facade. Paul Belmondo sponsored Juge’s copy. The original sculpture moved to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986.
Émile Zola criticized La Danse Sculpture harshly. He saw it as a satire of contemporary dance. He linked it to the perceived excesses of the imperial court. Today, visitors admire the copy of La Danse Sculpture. They sit peacefully on the opera house steps. Their reaction is far removed from the 19th-century outrage. The controversy surrounding La Danse Sculpture has faded into history.