Jacques-Léonard Maillet (; 12 July 1823 - 14 February 1894) was a French academic sculptor of modest reputation, whose themes were of neoclassical and biblical inspiration; his public commissions were in large part for the programs of decorative architectural sculpture required by the grandiose public works programs characteristic of the Second Empire, which included commemorative portraits of French culture heroes. He also provided models for goldsmith's work. Maillet was born in Paris, the son of a ''menuisier'', or carver of furniture and panelling, of the working-class district, the

Faubourg Saint-Antoine The Faubourg Saint-Antoine () was one of the traditional suburbs of Paris, France. It grew up to the east of the Bastille around the abbey of Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, and ran along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Location The Faubourg Sain ...

. His earliest training had been in a drawing school in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, before he entered the école des Beaux-Arts at the age of seventeen, 1 October 1840. There he studied with Jean-Jacques Feuchère, the heir of Pierre-Philippe Thomire Napoleon's official maker of ''bronzes d'ameublement'' winning a second prize in the ''

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

'', 1841. Then he studied under James Pradier, where he absorbed Pradier's style, combining a neoclassical treatment with sentimental subject matter and a taste for ''

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

'', but developed a reputation for overconfident laziness. In 1847 he received the ''premier grand prix de Rome'' on the given subject, ''Telemachus bringing back to Phalantes the ashes of Hippias'' and spent four years as a pensionnaire at the French Academy in Rome, which was the entry to every public career in sculpture in nineteenth-century France. A letter of

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

records the welcome extended to him and Maxime Du Camp. He was also interested in the technical aspects of art, and invented a polychroming process for mass-produced objects. In 1851, he returned to France, where he married Adrienne Désirée Vare, 31 December 1856; they had three daughters before separating; Mme Maillet raised her girls at Précy-sur-Oise. After her death, Maillet married the poet Jenny Grimault Touzin, already too ill to be moved from her domicile.The implication of the circumstances is that they were solemnising a long-standing relationship. At his death, two years later, he was buried in the

Père Lachaise Cemetery Père Lachaise Cemetery (, , formerly , ) is the largest cemetery in Paris, France, at . With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Buried at Père Lachaise are many famous figures in the ...

, Paris, with no monument to mark the site.

Selected works

*''Agrippina et Caligula'', Salon of 1853; his first entry in a Salon, it won a first-place medal *''Lavoisier'', for the Cour Napoléon of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. *''Agrippine portant les cendres de Germanicus'', Salon of 1861.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maillet, Jacques-Leonard Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Prix de Rome for sculpture 1823 births 1894 deaths 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French male artists