Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, son of a mason and a lacemaker from Valenciennes, built an exceptional destiny closely linked to the "imperial feast" of Napoleon III's reign. The one who stood out sharply in the artistic world of his time is also one of the most perfect incarnations of the cursed artist's romantic idea: by the brevity and dazzling nature of his career, concentrated over a period of fifteen years, by the violence and passion of relentless hard work on the subjects he chose or commissioned (the Pavillon de Flore du Louvre, La Danse pour l'opéra de Charles Garnier).
