Between Two Strokes of a Chisel

A Sculptor’s Memoir.

The memoir of the little-known sculptor Jules Salmson warrants this first full translation into English for the vivid picture it paints of Salmson’s time and place, and of the people with whom he came into intimate contact. Throughout his life, Jules Salmson was on friendly terms with many of the greatest sculptors of the nineteenth century: Francisque Duret, James Pradier, Francois Rude, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, David d’Angers, and many more. He served on the Commission of Sculpture for the infamous and chaotic Salon of 1848, participated in Salons and exhibitions, and shared a studio with the artist who inspired the lead role in La Bohème. And Salmson, the minor player, the occasional guest, the also-ran, recorded it all in this memoir.

In fifty-four anecdotal passages presented as short chapters, Salmson ranges over the various episodes of his life; most are entertaining, a few are genuinely hilarious or heartbreaking, and all reveal much about the times in which he lived.

This English translation will be appreciated by contemporary figurative sculpture students, a small but growing tribe in the first half of the 21st century. In our search to understand the world from which our traditions derive, it is helpful to have a text or two that isn’t a dry monograph, that doesn’t adhere to the mainstream narratives, that isn’t written as a just-the-facts history. Those resources can tell us what happened and why it is important, and that is good; but we sculptors also want to know what it was like.

The translation is accompanied by footnotes which strive for brevity, hoping to give enough context for a reader to enjoy the book without pausing to look something up, though the reader is encouraged to do so. Salmson’s book is a first-hand overview of almost a century of art and culture, and can serve as a springboard for unsterstanding that remote, magical world of nineteenth century Paris.