The laughing child - Jean Antoine INJALBERT (1845-1933)

Jean Antoine INJALBERT (1845-1933) - L'enfant rieur Bronze patiné fondeur Siot à Paris
The son of a stonemason, Jean-Antoine Injalbert was orphaned at birth. He spent his childhood in Béziers, then entered the École des Beaux-Arts: the neo-baroque art of this student of Auguste Dumont is marked by the influence of Puget, Carpeaux and the naturalism of Jules Dalou.


His first work was the tympanum for the Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur in Béziers. He wins the Prix de Rome in 1874 for La Douleur d'Orphée. He exhibited Le Christ at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris. He wins a Grand Prix at the 1889 Universal Exhibition. His Buste de Marianne, created for the Centenary of the French Revolution in 1889, was one of the most widely used in French town halls and schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He was a member of the delegation of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts from 1901 to 1905.
His teaching at the École des Beaux-Arts, from 1891 to 1929, was linked to the Toulousain group, which had a profound influence on Antoine Bourdelle.