581. Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785), French,

Voltaire Nude, 1776. Marble, 150 x 89 x 77 cm.

Musée du Louvre, Paris. Neoclassicism.

 

 

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle

(1714 Paris – 1785 Paris)

 

The French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was the son of the king’s furniture maker. A neighbour and relative of Allegrain, he became an apprentice of Robert le Lorrain, the creator of the Horses of the Sun of the Hôtel de Rohan, and later of Lemoyne. He was unsuccessful in the Rome competition. He subsequently travelled on foot to Italy, where he nearly died of poverty. A guest of the king, Guillaume II Coustou, saved him. Pigalle’s work was so successful that the French ambassador bought his first work from him – a copy of the Player of Jacks. He later lived in Lyon for several years and, upon returning to Paris, created his charming statuette of Mercury Attaching His Winged Sandals (1744), the work he presented at the time of acceptance by the Academy. The king bought a larger reproduction of it and commissioned a second piece, the Venus (1748). In addition, the favour of Madame de Pompadour secured him numerous orders. The King’s mistress herself commissioned the pedestrian Louis XV at Bellevue (destroyed) as well as Love and Friendship.

Pigalle portrayed his patroness in the allegorical statue of Friendship. The favour of Marquise de Marigny won him a commission for the mausoleum of Maurice de Saxe. Pigalle presented his model in 1756 to the Salon. However, the Monument to Maurice de Saxe was not opened in Strasburg until 1777. Among his important works, mention must also be made of the Tomb of Marshal d’Harcourt and Voltaire Nude.

Along with monumental sculpture, Pigalle also distinguished himself in figures of style, in fantasy, and in portraiture. He displayed a highly original realist style. His figures of children are superb, with the most famous being his Child with a Cage.