Antoine Étex

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Antoine Étex
Antoine Étex's tomb of Théodore Géricault (1791-1824),
Born	March 20, 1808 Paris
Died	July 14, 1888 Chaville, Seine-et-Oise
Occupation	Sculptor, painter and architect

Antoine Étex (March 20, 1808 - July 14, 1888), French sculptor, painter and architect, was born in Paris.

He first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1833, his work including a reproduction in marble of his "Death of Hyacinthus", and the plaster cast of his "Cain and his race cursed by God". Adolphe Thiers, who was at this time minister of public works, now commissioned him to execute the two groups of "Peace" and "War", flanking the arch on the east facade of the Arc de Triomphe. This last, which established his reputation, he reproduced in marble in the salon of 1839.

The French capital contains numerous examples of the sculptural works of Étex, which included mythological and religious subjects besides a great number of portraits. Among the best known of his architectural productions are the tomb of Napoleon I in the Invalides and a monument of the revolution of 1848. Étex's tomb of Théodore Géricault in Père Lachaise Cemetery includes a bronze figure of the painter, and a low-relief version the painter's controversial Raft of the Medusa on a front panel.

Étex's paintings include the subjects of Eurydice and the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, and he also wrote a number of essays on subjects connected with the arts. The last year of his life was spent at Nice, and he died at Chaville, Seine-et-Oise in 1888. He was buried in the Cimetière du Montparnasse in Paris.

[edit] Sources

PE Mangeant, Antoine Étex, peintre, sculpteur et architecte, 1808-1888 (Paris, 1894).
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.