Charles Gounod - Williamstown, MA - Dead Poets' Society Memorials on Waymarking.com

A 25.5" high terracotta bust of Charles Gounod by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux depicts the French composer from the mid chest up. He is wearing a jacket, waistcoat and ascot tie. His head is tilted to his right and slightly up.

A sign on the pedestal is inscribed:

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
French, 1827-1875

Charles Gounod
1873
Terracotta

Charles Gounod was a French composer
famous for his operas, such as Faust
The turn of the sitter's head and the
delicate modeling give the sculpture a
sense of vitality and spontaneity, as if it
had been made in a single session. In fact,
Gounod recalled that the bust required
nearly fourteen sittings to complete.

Gift of Catherine Deely and Pam Deely Van De Loo, in loving
memory of their parents, James and patricia Deely, 2004
2004.17.1

Charles-François Gounod was born on 17 June 17, 1818 in Paris, France. His pianist mother first taught him to play the piano. He then studied at the Paris Conservatoire. Gounod wrote his first opera, Sapho, in 1851 and his first mass the St. Cecilia Mass in 1854 followed by two symphonies.

A prolific composer, Gounod wrote numerous oratorios, ballets, theater pieces, masses, motets, songs, and instrumental pieces. He best known for his operas which include:

Sapho (1851)
La nonne sanglante (1854)
Le médecin malgré lui (1858)
Faust (1859, revised 1869)
Philémon et Baucis (1860)
La colombe (1860)
La reine de Saba (1862)
Mireille (1864)
Roméo et Juliette (1867)
Cinq-Mars (1877)
Maître Pierre (1877–84)
Polyeucte (1878)
Le tribut de Zamora (1881)

Gounod was a prolific writer of songs. He wrote more than a hundred French secular songs and thirty more in English or Italian for the British market.