Julie Charpentier (1770–1843) was a French sculptor. Charpentier was born in Paris, the daughter of François-Philippe Charpentier, ''mécanicien du roi'', and grew up in the

Louvre 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 ...

in government-owned lodgings. From her father she learned drawing, also taking lessons from Augustin Pajou. She began exhibiting her work in 1787 and first showed at the Louvre Salon in 1793; she continued to send works to the Salon every year from 1798 until 1824, working in

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

, stone, and plaster. Many of her sculptures were produced to government commissions, including four of the 425 bas-reliefs on the column of the

place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It i ...

. In 1801 Charpentier offered her services as a

taxidermist Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...

to the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...

, and for twenty-five years thereafter mounted a range of animals for the institution. In 1826 she was granted a salaried post, but this was not enough to keep her from penury, and she died in poverty in the Salpêtrière. Several sculptures by Charpentier are in the collection of the Château de Blois, including a possible self-portrait. A bust of a man is in the in Saint-Quentin, while a bust of

Clémence Isaure Clémence Isaure is a quasi-legendary French medieval figure credited with founding or restoring the Acadèmia dels Jòcs Florals or Academy of the Floral Games. She is supposed to have left a legacy to fund awards in the form of gold and silver ...

is in the

musée des Augustins The Musée des Augustins de Toulouse is a fine arts museum in Toulouse, France which conserves a collection of sculpture and paintings from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. The paintings are from throughout France, the sculptures represe ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

References

1770 births 1843 deaths 18th-century French sculptors 18th-century French women artists 19th-century French sculptors 19th-century French women artists French women sculptors Sculptors from Paris Taxidermists {{France-sculptor-stub