Le Grenouillard (The Frog Man) 1886 - 1896

Jean-Joseph Carriès created this glazed stoneware sculpture, "Le Grenouillard", with a weight confirmed at 29.1 pounds. The work presents a figure of ambiguous nature. It is human-like but decidedly not human, resting with a frog. The color palette is muted, predominantly earth tones, enhancing the sculpture's organic quality and sense of primordial existence. The tactile nature of the stoneware, with its rough texture and visible tool marks, invites a close inspection of its surface. Carriès challenges established categories. The unsettling effect is not merely about combining human and animal forms. The sculpture destabilizes our understanding of identity and being. It represents the uncanny and the monstrous. The rough finish and muted colors create a sense of something unearthed, something ancient and deeply unsettling. The interplay between the smooth surface of the frog and the rough texture of the human-like figure adds to this sense of unease. This juxtaposition of textures within the sculpture questions fixed meanings and values. Carriès provokes an ongoing interpretation of art as a site of cultural and philosophical discourse.