Born in Port Louis in 1836 into a distinguished Creole family, Prosper d’Épinay was raised in France from 1839 onward and displayed exceptional talent for drawing from an early age. It was in Paris, in 1858, that he first turned to sculpture, initially through caricature. His biting portrayals of Parisian and Mauritian society earned him a discreet but widespread reputation before Dantan the Younger, recognizing beneath the caricaturist the makings of a true artist, persuaded him to devote himself to serious sculpture.

In 1861, he entered the Roman studio of the sculptor Amici, a formative period during which he befriended Fortuny, who chose him as the model for the bridegroom in his painting The Spanish Wedding, and Henry Regnault, whose career he would profoundly influence. The collector Eugène Piot immediately recognized the originality of his talent and encouraged him from the outset of his work in marble. It was also in Rome that d’Épinay developed the sculptural language that would establish his reputation: female figures of strikingly modern and captivating grace, carved in Carrara marble whose optical qualities he exploited with remarkable virtuosity, alternating the translucent polish of flesh with the vibrant treatment of hair.

His first major masterpiece was the bronze statue of his father, Adrien d’Épinay, unveiled in Port Louis in 1866. This was followed by the statue of Governor Stevenson, acclaimed by the Royal Academy in London. He subsequently established a studio in London, where he produced the marble bust of the Princess of Wales as well as portraits of some of the most prominent figures of the British gentry.

His permanent move to Paris in 1874, marked by the opening of his studio on Boulevard Haussmann, ushered in a period of international recognition. Ceinture dorée (The Golden Girdle), commissioned by Madame de Cassin and exhibited that same year, firmly established his reputation. Depicting a nude young woman of startling modernity, the work perplexed academic critics while winning the admiration of leading intellectuals and critics, including Armand de Pontmartin, Charles Haas, and Thiébault-Sisson. Le Figaro wrote that “the chisel of Jean Goujon has been rediscovered in a man of the world.”

Two decades of intense artistic production followed: Callixène (the triumph of the 1883 Salon), The Begging Cupid (L’Amour mendiant) and The Awakening (Le Réveil), acquired respectively by the Tsar and the Emperor of Russia; The Queen of Flowers (La Reine des fleurs), acquired by the King of the Netherlands; as well as Hannibal as a Child, Sappho, Penelope, and Paul and Virginia. Among the subjects of his portrait busts were Liszt, Fortuny, Henry Regnault, Sarah Bernhardt, the Tsarina, the Empress of Austria, and members of Europe’s leading aristocratic families.

A sculptor of movement and feminine grace, d’Épinay occupies a singular place in French sculpture of the second half of the nineteenth century: that of a Creole artist trained in Rome and celebrated in Paris, who succeeded in reconciling the legacy of antiquity with modern sensibility, finding in white marble a voice entirely his own.

Literature :

• Leoville l’Homme. Le statuaire Prosper d’Épinay. Port-Louis (Île Maurice) : Imprimerie de The Merchants and Planters Gazette, 1890.
• Vente d’Épinay. Catalogue de sculptures, groupes, statues, bustes, terres cuites originales décorées, maquettes, esquisses, bronzes fondus à cire perdue, tableaux modernes, objets d’art et de curiosité formant les collections de M. d’Épinay. Paris : Hôtel Drouot, 20–21 avril 1885. Commissaire-priseur : M. Escribe ; expert : A. Bloche.
• Capobianchi, Vincenzo, éd. Catalogue des marbres antiques et des objets d’art provenant de l’héritage des Princes Borghèse : collections du Musée du Pavillon de l’Horloge (Villa Borghese), à Rome. Rome : Pavillon de l’Horloge, Villa Borghese, 1893
• Roux Foujols, Patricia. Prosper d’Épinay (1836–1914) : un Mauricien à la cour des princes. Curepipe, Île Maurice : L’Amicale Maurice-France, 1996.