Guillaume Coustou the Younger (19 March 1716 – 13 July 1777) was a French sculptor of the late French Baroque or

Style Louis XIV The Louis XIV style or ''Louis Quatorze'' ( , ), also called French classicism, was the style of architecture and decorative arts intended to glorify King Louis XIV and his reign. It featured majesty, harmony and regularity. It became the official ...

, and early neo-classicism.

Life and career

The son of

Guillaume Coustou the Elder Guillaume Coustou the Elder (29 November 1677, Lyon – 22 February 1746, Paris) was a French sculptor of the Baroque and Louis XIV style. He was a royal sculptor for Louis XIV and Louis XV and became Director of the Royal Academy of Paintin ...

and nephew of

Nicolas Coustou Nicolas Coustou (9 January 1658 – 1 May 1733) was a French sculptor and academic. Biography Born in Lyon, Coustou was the son of a woodcarver, François Coustou, who gave him his first instruction in art, and Claudine Coysevox. When he w ...

, he trained in the family atelier and studied at the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in ...

, 1736–39, as winner of the Prix de Rome (1735). He returned to Paris, where he completed the famous "Horse Tamers" (''Chevaux de Marly'') commissioned from his father in 1739 for Marly, when the elder Coustou was too infirm to actively carry out the commissions. They were completed and installed in 1745. He was accepted at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture (1742) and pursued a successful official career, working fluently in styles that ranged from the Late Baroque of his ''morceau de réception,'' a ''Seated Vulcan'' (''illustrated'') to the sentimental early neoclassicism of the ''Ganymede'', whose affinities with Roman sculptures of Antinous have been suggested by Michael Worley. He produced portrait busts as well as his religious and mythological subjects. His most prominent and ambitious official commission was the ''Monument to the Dauphin'' for the cathedral of Sens. The elaborate iconography of its somewhat overcharged design was worked up by the artist and connoisseur Charles-Nicolas Cochin. His pupils included two minor neoclassical sculptors, Claude Dejoux and Pierre Julien, who were fellow pupils in the 1760s and went on to collaborate on sculptural projects and the young Danish sculptor, Johannes Widewelt, who was placed in his workshop through the offices of the secretary of the Danish legation. In the process, Widewelt picked up some of Coustou's clarity and his language of rhetorical gesture.Else Marie Bukdahl, "Wiedewelt, der Neuklassizismus und die Frühromantik" ''Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte'' 54.3 (1991, pp. 388-405) p 389.

Works

* ''Apotheosis of St Francis Xavier'' (marble, c. 1743) Bordeaux, Church of St Paul) * ''Marguerite Le Comte'' (bronze, c. 1750), The Victoria and Albert Museum, London *''Apollo'' (marble, 1753) commissioned by

Mme de Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...

for the park at the

château de Bellevue The Château de Bellevue () was a small château built for Madame de Pompadour in 1750. It was constructed on a broad plateau in Meudon, above a slope overlooking the Seine to the east, but was demolished in 1823 and little remains. History ...

(at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

) *''Mars'' and ''Venus'' (marble, 1769) for Frederick II of Prussia at

Schloss Sanssouci Sanssouci () is a historical building in Potsdam, near Berlin. Built by Prussian King Frederick the Great as his summer palace, it is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. While Sanssouci is in the more intimate Rococo style and ...

, Potsdam * Pediment sculptures, (limestone, 1753 onwards) executed with Michelange Slodtz for

Ange-Jacques Gabriel Ange-Jacques Gabriel (23 October 1698 – 4 January 1782) was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. His major works included the Place de la Concorde, the École Militaire, and the Petit Trianon and opera theater at the Palace of V ...

’s twin ''hôtels'' (from 1753) on the

Place de la Concorde The Place de la Concorde () is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. ...

* ''Ganymede'' (marble, ''ca'' 1760 (

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

) *Funeral ''Monument to the Dauphin'', (free-standing marble and bronze, 1766–77), Sens Cathedral

Notes

References

*Souchal, François, ''French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th Centuries''

External links

Short biography
at artnet, from ''The

Grove Dictionary of Art ''Grove Art Online'' is the online edition of ''The Dictionary of Art'', often referred to as the ''Grove Dictionary of Art'', and part of Oxford Art Online, an internet gateway to online art reference publications of Oxford University Press, ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coustou, Guillaume The Younger 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 1716 births 1777 deaths Artists from Paris 18th-century French male artists