Charles Gumery

Charles-Alphonse-Achille Guméry[1] (14 June 1827 – 19 January 1871[2]) was a French sculptor working in an academic realist manner in Paris.

[3] A student of Armand Toussaint (1806–1862)[4] at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in 1850 he received the Prix de Rome, the sine qua non for an official career as a French sculptor.

When, on the morning of 29 August 1869 it was discovered that ink had been thrown over Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux' marble La Danse in the façade of the Opéra Garnier, it was thought to have been a scandalized gesture by a member of the public because of the nudity of Carpeaux' figures.

Charles Garnier, who had already commissioned from Gumery two gilded groups for the cornice of the Palais Garnier, asked Gumery to sculpt a replacement figure of La Danse to replace the disfigured Carpeaux group.

[5] Gomery is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, where his gravestone is surmounted by a bust sculpted by his pupil Jean Gautherin.