Buste de Jules Massenet

French composer Jules Massenet was born on 12 May 1842 in Montaud, in the Loire, and died on 13 August 1912 in Paris. He was a prolific composer with close ties to the Principality of Monaco. Massenet’s election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1878 served to deepen his friendship with Prince Albert I – who was also a member of the Institut de France.
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo regularly staged performances of his works, including Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame in 1902, an opera dedicated to the Prince of Monaco. In 1910, Don Quichotte became a major success. Massenet helped to make the Principality an important place on the musical map during the Belle Époque period. For the official opening of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco on 29 March 1910, Jules Massenet created La Nef Triomphale and paid a warm tribute to the “Scholar Prince”.
The bust of Massenet was officially unveiled in 1914, in the presence of Prince Albert I. The speech given by the Prince of Monaco reflected his affection and admiration for the composer: “The man whose charming glory we celebrate here carried within him a fertile warmth that engendered these masterpieces, and their enchantment glides over our musical dreams; he was the magician whose melodious thought overflowed across thatched roofs and palaces alike. ”

Léopold Bernhard Bernstamm was a German sculptor born on 20 April 1859 in Riga (Russia). After moving to Saint Petersburg with his father in 1872, he entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1874. He became famous in the early 1880s by creating some three hundred portraits of Russian and French personalities. He moved to Paris in 1885, joining the workshop of Antonin Mercié. His speed of execution and keen eye for physiognomy eventually saw him appointed the head sculptor at the Musée Grevin. Léopold Bernhard Bernstamm died on 22 January 1939 in Paris.