Edmé Bouchardon

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Cupid fashioning a bow from the club of Hercules, 1747-50

Edmé Bouchardon (29 May 1698 - 27 July 1762) was a French sculptor, esteemed in his day as the greatest sculptor of his time.

Born at Chaumont, he became the pupil of Guillaume Coustou and gained the prix de Rome in 1722. Resisting the tendency of the day he was classic in his taste, pure and chaste, always correct, charming and distinguished, a great stickler for all the finish that sandpaper could give. During the ten years he remained at Rome, Bouchardon made a striking bust of Pope Benedict XIII (1730).

In 1746 he produced his first acclaimed masterpiece, Cupid fashioning a Bow out of the Club of Hercules, perfect in its grace, but cold in the purity of its classic design. His two other leading chefs-d'oeuvre are the fountain in the rue de Grenelle, Paris, the first portions of which had been finished and exhibited in 1740, and the equestrian statue of Louis XV of France, a commission from the city of Paris. This superb work, which, when the model was produced, was declared the finest work of its kind ever produced in France, Bouchardon did not live to finish, but left its completion to Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. It was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Replica of the Barberini Faun, by Bouchardon when at the French Academy in Rome, 1726

Among the chief books on the sculptor and his art are Vie d'Edmé Bouchardon, by the comte de Caylus (Paris, 1762); Notice sur Edmé Bouchardon, sculpteur, by E. Jolibois (Versailles, 1837); Notice historique sur Edmé Bouchardon, by J. Carnandet (Paris, 1855); and French Architects and Sculptors of the 18th Century, by Lady Dilke (London, 1900).