Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert or Jean Pierre Antoine Tassaert (1727, Antwerp – 21 January 1788,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) was a sculptor of

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

extraction, who, after a successful career in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, became a leading portrait sculptor in Berlin."Tassaert."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 25 Apr. 2014

Life

Training

Tassaert was born in Antwerp where he was baptised on 19 August 1727.Biographical details
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

He trained in Antwerp and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. From 1744 he resided in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

where he studied in the atelier of

René-Michel Slodtz René-Michel Slodtz called Michel-Ange Slodtz (1705–1764) was a French sculptor who worked in Baroque style, and active mainly in Paris and Rome for the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi. Biography A Parisian by birth, Slodtz's father, Sébastien Slo ...

, a member of a dynasty of designer-sculptors of Flemish extraction working for the royal court.

Career in Paris

Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert - Reclining Bacchante

In 1769 Tassaert was approved (agréé) at the French

Académie Royale An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

(which constitutes the first level of admission to the Académie) but he was never received (reçu) as a full member academician."Jean-Pierre-Antoine Tassaert."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 26 Apr. 2014 After Slodtz's death in 1764, he emerged as a sculptor in his own right. He exhibited frequently at the Salon, mainly showing small mythological and allegorical figures and groups. His work was well liked by the aristocracy and the

Marquise 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 re ...

was one of his patrons. He received many commissions and worked at least since the mid-fifties at the Pavilion du Roi of the art-loving general tax collector Etienne-Michel Bouret. Other influential patrons included the "Contrôleur général des finances" Abbé Joseph Marie Terray (1715-1778) and the Russian diplomat and later President of the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the T ...

, Baron

Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov (1733–1811) was a Russian baron and a member of the Stroganov family. He was an assistant to the Minister of the Interior, a longtime President of the Imperial Academy of Arts, director of the Russian Imperial ...

(1733-1811). He finally became court sculptor of the Count of the Provence (the later King Louis XVIII), who made him his appointed sculptor (sculpteur attitré) in 1773.Rita Hofreiter, 'Venus in der Kiste, Ein »morceau de réception« des Bildhauers Jean Pierre Antoine Tassaert für König Friedrich II. von Preußen'
in: Jahrbuch Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Band 2, 1997/1998

Career in Berlin

Tassaert had married the miniature painter Marie-Edmée Moreau (1736–91) in Paris in 1758. This marriage produced 8 children. Because of the financial strain of raising a large family, Tassaert wished to find a steady employment. In June 1775, after a career of about 30 years in Paris, Tassaert moved with his family to Berlin. Here he became the third director of the royal sculpture workshop, also called the 'French studio', because the two previous directors had been the Frenchmen

François Gaspard Adam François Gaspard Adam (May 23, 1710 – August 18, 1761) was a French rococo sculptor. A member of the Adam family of painters, François was born at Nancy, and studied under his father, Jacob-Sigisbert. He later followed his two brother ...

(1710-1761) and Sigisbert-François Michel (1728-1811). The contract for his appointment had been signed by the Prussian king

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...

. The position of first royal sculptor had been vacant for several years when Tassaert took on the post. The appointment of Tassaert had been brokered by the French

encyclopaedist An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article ( ...

Jean le Rond d'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the '' Encyclopéd ...

(1717-1783). Tassaert had also sent the king some of his works in order to support his application for the position. One of the sculptures he sent was a statute of a Bathing Venus. Story has it that the Prussian king liked the sculpture so much that he did not dare to take it out of its box out of fear it might be damaged. The position at the court guaranteed Tassaert, in addition to fees for his work, a steady income, paid assistants, a free studio and a house built from the royal purse. The house and studio promised by the king were completed in 1779. Here Tassaert also set up a kind of master-studio, where he trained young sculptors. The most famous of his pupils was Gottfried Schadow who would be his successor as court sculptor.Seidel, P., „Tassaert, Jean Pierre Antoine“
in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1894), S. nline version He commenced a period of intense artistic activity in Berlin. His first major works were four marble statues of

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

, a faun and two Bacchantes made for the great hall of the new rooms in the palace of

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 ...

. In addition to many smaller works for the royal palaces, Tassaert was commissioned by the king to make statues of General von Seydlitz and Field Marshal von Keith for the

Wilhelmplatz Wilhelmplatz was a square in the Mitte district of Berlin, at the corner of Wilhelmstrasse and Voßstraße. The square also gave its name to a Berlin U-Bahn station which has since been renamed Mohrenstraße. A number of notable buildings were c ...

in Berlin (the statues were replaced in 1857 with bronze copies made by

August Kiss August Karl Eduard Kiss, or Kiß (October 11, 1802 – March 24, 1865) was a German sculptor, known for his monumental bronzes. Life and works Kiss was born in Paprotzan (now Paprocany, part of Tychy in Poland) in Prussian Silesia. He studi ...

, the originals can be seen at the

Bode Museum The Bode-Museum (English: ''Bode Museum''), formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (''Emperor Frederick Museum''), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of Germ ...

). His portrayal of General von Seydlitz in contemporary regimental uniform rather than in the usual Roman drapery was controversial and ignited a debate over the dress of public statues which lasted into the 1830s. Tassaert also produced in this period a series of penetrating portraits such as that of

Moses Mendelssohn Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and theologian. His writings and ideas on Jews and the Jewish religion and identity were a central element in the development of the ''Haskalah'', or ' ...

(1785). The artistic activity in Berlin gradually subsided in the final years of Frederick the Great. Upon his death in 1786, his nephew the King Frederick William II revived the support for the arts. In order to promote a more artistic and uniform design even in the architectural ornamental forms, Tassaert was given the task to supervise all "figure sculptors and decorators" working on the royal buildings. From this period date a number of decorative works which have been preserved in the royal palaces. The last work of the artist for the king was the design for a tomb of the Count von der Mark, which was executed in a different manner by his pupil Johann Gottfried Schadow. He died in his home on 21 January 1788.

Family

He was the nephew of Jean-Pierre Tassaert (1651-1725), and the grandson of Pierre Tassaert (master of the painters'

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ide ...

1635- ca 1692/93) both painters of Antwerp. Tassaert was the teacher of his son Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert and daughter Henriette-Félicité Tassaert. They were accomplished portraitists, Jean-Joseph-François working as an engraver in Paris and Henriette-Felicité as a pastel specialist in Germany. Jean-Joseph-François' son

Octave Tassaert Nicolas François Octave Tassaert (Paris, 26 July 1800 – Paris, 24 April 1874) *''Pyrrha, or Population'', white marble ca. 1773–74 (plaster model exhibited at the Salon of 1773). Commissioned by the Abbé Terray for the sculpture gallery in his Paris residence, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, as a pair to Augustin Pajou's ''Mercury, or Commerce''. Michael Levey suggests that the commission most likely dates from Terray's brief tour as Director of the ''

Bâtiments du Roi The Bâtiments du Roi (, "King's Buildings") was a division of the Maison du Roi ("King's Household") in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris. History The Bâtiments ...

.'' *Putti representing ''Painting'' and ''Sculpture'', white marble ca 1774–78 also commissioned by Terray as one of four groups by various sculptors *''Cupid Preparing to Shoot his Arrow'' ( Malmaison). *''Portrait bust of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert'' (1715 - 1769). (

Louvre Museum The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

) *''Catherine the Great as Minerva Protectress of the Arts'' (

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest ...

). *(attributed) ''Seated Venus Filling a Quiver with Roses'', white marble (Musée Cognac-Jay, Paris).On-line catalogue of Musée Cognac-Jay
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Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tassaert, Jean-Pierre-Antoine Flemish sculptors (before 1830) Court sculptors 1727 births 1788 deaths