Jean-Joseph Espercieux (22 July 1757 in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

– 6 July 1840 in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

) was a French sculptor. Statue de Sully Rosny-sur-Seine01-B

Life

A carpenter's son, he moved to Paris in 1776 to study in the studio of Charles-Antoine Bridan and (on an irregular basis) those of

Jean-Joseph Foucou Jean-Joseph Foucou (1739 – 16 February 1821) was a French sculptor. Foucou was born at Riez, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. A student at the École de peinture et de sculpture of Marseille, he went to Paris, where he entered the workshop of Jean-Ja ...

, Pierre Julien and Philippe-Laurent Roland. His main influence seems to have been

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...

, though his career prior to the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

is little known. During the Revolution he was heavily pro-Republican and played an active role as one of the presidents of the Societe Republicaine des Arts, making speeches favouring the use of antique costume and patriotic subjects. He exhibited regularly at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

, mainly portrait busts, from 1793. His career's peak came with state commissions during the

French Consulate The Consulate (french: Le Consulat) was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 10 November 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term ''The Con ...

and

First French Empire The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...

, such as a plaster bust of

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

(1803, Fontainebleau, Chateau), a plaster statue of Mirabeau (1804-5; present location unknown) for the

Palais du Luxembourg The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...

, a marble relief of ''The Victory of Austerlitz'' for the

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel () ( en, Triumphal Arch of the Carousel) is a triumphal arch in Paris, located in the Place du Carrousel. It is an example of Neoclassical architecture in the Corinthian order. It was built between 1806 and 1808 ...

(1810, still in situ) and marble allegorical reliefs for the Fontaine de la Paix in the Marche Saint-Germain in Paris (1810; now Rue Bonaparte).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espercieux 1757 births 1840 deaths 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French sculptors Sculptors from Marseille 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists