Edmé Bouchardon

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Cupid fashioning a bow out of 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 barocchetto 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. Of his two other leading chefs-d'oeuvre the survivor is the fountain in the rue de Grenelle, Paris, commissioned by the city of Paris in 1739, the first portions of which had been finished and exhibited in 1740, and the completed work completed in 1745. The great loss is the equestrian statue of Louis XV of France, also 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

For a quarter-century Bouchardon designed the jetons, or New Year's tokens distributed by the King, and the medals. Die-cutters working for the mint, executed the dies. the subjects and the mottoes (legendes) were chosen by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, the Petit-Académie and passed through an elaborate process of critical apoproval, which involved the king. The result is an archive of Bouchardon drawings at the Bibliothèque de l'Institut (for the jetons) and the Musée de la Monnaie (for the medals); a great cache of counterproofs at the Bibliothèque National. 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).