Joan Baptiste Carpeaux, a French sculptor, born in Valenciennes, May 14, 1827. He studied in Paris, obtained the prize of Rome in 1854, produced his first statue, a fisher boy, in 1859, and acquired reputation in 1863 by his group of Ugolino and his children, which was purchased by the government and attracted attention by a bold departure from classical models. Conspicuous among his subsequent productions are a Neapolitan fisherman, in Baron Rothschild's gallery; a girl with a shell, in possession of the duchess de Mouchy; and many busts. In 1865 he executed for the Flora pavilion of the Louvre statuary exhibiting imperial France as enlightening the world and protecting agriculture and science. His subsequent work representing dancing on the facade of the new opera house has been highly praised for its singular picturesqueness, and much censured for violating the conventional rules of art; and an unavailing attempt to damage it by corrosive ink was made soon after its appearance, in the night of Aug. 27, 1869.