Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (sculptor)

Life

Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne was born in Paris in 1704. His father Jean-Louis Lemoyne, was also a sculptor, and was first teacher. He later became a student of another prominent sculptor, Robert Le Lorrain. He is sometimes referred to as Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne or "the younger" to distinguish him from his uncle of the same name, another sculptor, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Elder.

He received the prix de Rome awarded by the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, but remained in Paris to aid his blind father. He became a member of the Academy in 1838, and, later became its director. Like the other royal sculptors, made statuary for the Gardens of Versailles. He was a particular favorite of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of the King and an important patron of the arts. He made a graceful rococo sculpture of Vertumnus and Pomone, two characters from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, which was a favorite theme of Madame Pompadour. The sculpture is now in the Louvre. He also made a state of Madame Pompadour in the costume of a nymph. He made several busts of Louis XV, and an equestrian statue of the King for the courtyard of the new Ecole Militaire, but this was destroyed during the French Revolution.

He was especially known for the quality of his portrait busts, which captured the passing nuances of expression and gave a sense of movement. His important portrait busts included those of the naturalist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (1751); the painter Noël-Nicolas Coypel (1760); the scientist Fontenelle (at Versailles); Madame de Pompadour; and Marie-Antoinette in 1771. He is considered the most skilled of the French rococo sculptors.

Lemoyne's students included Étienne Maurice Falconet Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, and Augustin Pajou.

Sculpture

File:The Comtesse de Feuquieres by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Terracotta, circa 1738 CE. From Paris, France. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.jpg|The Comtesse de Feuquieres by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Terracotta, circa 1738 CE. From Paris, France. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London File:Noel-Nicolas Coypel by Lemoyne.jpg|A plaster bust of his friend Noel-Nicolas Coypel, 1730 (Raclin Murphy Museum of Art) File:Château de Versailles, appartements du Dauphin et de la Dauphine, seconde antichambre du Dauphin, buste de Louis XV, Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne (1749) 03.jpg|Louis XV (1749), Palace of Versailles File:Model for the Monument to Louis XV at Rennes, c. 1746-1748, by Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, terracotta - Art Institute of Chicago - DSC09418.JPG|Model for a Monument to Louis XV in Rennes (1746–48), Art Institute of Chicago File:Vertumne et pomone.JPG|Vertumnus and Pomona, 1760 (the Louvre) File:Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne - Bernard le Bouvier de Fontenelle.jpg|Essaying and scientist Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1749) Carnegie Museum of Art File:Geneviève-Françoise Randon de Malboissière (1740–1766) MET CT 17223.jpg|Geneviève-Françoise Randon de Malboissière (1768), Metropolitan Museum of Art File:Buste de Marie-Antoinette par Jean Baptiste Lemoyne - 1771.jpg|Marie-Antoinette (1771) (Musée d'Histoire de l'art, Vienne) File:Félicité Sophie de Lannion, Duchesse de La Rochefoucauld, at the Age of 29 Years (1745–1830) MET ES5995.jpg|The Duchesse de La Rochefoucauld (1774), Metropolitan Museum of Art

Notes

Bibliography

• Geese, Uwe, Section on Baroque sculpture in L'Art Baroque – Architecture – Sculpture – Peinture (French translation from German), H.F. Ulmann, Cologne, 2015. ()
• Duby, Georges and Daval, Jean-Luc, La Sculpture de l'Antiquité au XXe Siècle, (French translation from German), Taschen, (2013), ()

References

1. ''Le Petit Robert des Noms Propres'', (2010)
2. [[Louis Réau]], ''Une dynastie de sculpteurs au XVIIIe siècle : les Lemoyne'', 1927.
3. ''Le Petit Robert des Noms Propres'', (2010)
4. ''Le Petit Robert des Noms Propres'', (2010)
5. ''Le Petit Robert des Noms Propres'', (2010)
6. Geese, ''L'Art Baroque – Architecture, sculpture, peinture'' (2015), pg. 314
7. Grasselli, Margaret Morgan. (2009). "Renaissance to revolution: French drawings from the National Gallery of Art, 1500–1800". National Gallery of Art.