James Pradier

{"Id":1688,"Name":"James Pradier","Biography":"\u003Cstrong\u003EPRADIER, JAMES (1792-1852),\u003C/strong\u003E French sculptor, was born at Geneva. He was a member of the French Academy, and a popular sculptor of the pre-Romantic period, representing in France the drawing-room classicism which \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/art.asp?aid=553\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ECanova\u003C/a\u003E illustrated at Rome. Pradier left for Paris in 1807 to work with his elder brother, an engraver. He won a Prix de Rome that enabled him to study in Rome from 1814 to 1818. He studied under Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in Paris. In 1827 he became a member of the Academie des Beaux-Arts and a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pradier oversaw the finish of his sculptures himself. He was a friend of the Romantic poets Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo and Th\u0026eacute;ophile Gautier, and his atelier was a center, presided over by his beautiful mistress, Juliette Drouet, who married Hugo in 1833.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe cool neoclassical surface finish of his sculptures is charged with an eroticism that their mythological themes can barely disguise. At the Salon of 1834, Pradier\u0027s \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=8612\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESatyr and Bacchante\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/a\u003E created a scandalous sensation. Some claimed to recognize the features of the sculptor and his mistress, Juliette Drouet. When the prudish government of Louis-Philippe refused to purchase it, Count Anatole Demidoff bought it and took it to his palazzo in Florence. (It has since come back to the Louvre.)\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHis chief works are the \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=17348\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003ENiobe\u003C/a\u003E group (1822), \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=17342\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003E\u003Cu\u003EAtalanta\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/a\u003E (1850), \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=17353\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003E\u003Cu\u003EPsyche\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/a\u003E (1824), \u003Cu\u003ESappho\u003C/u\u003E (1852) (all in the Louvre), \u003Cu\u003EPrometheus\u003C/u\u003E (Tuileries Gardens), a bas-relief on the triumphal arch of the Carrousel, the figures of \u003Cu\u003EFame\u003C/u\u003E on the Arc des \u0026Eacute;toile, and a statue of J. J. Rousseau for Geneva. Besides these mention should be made of his \u003Ca href=\u0022/asp/database/image.asp?id=17345\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022kinj\u0022\u003E\u003Cu\u003EThree Graces\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/a\u003E (1831).\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EOther famous sculptures by Pradier are his twelve Victories inside the dome of the Invalides. Aside from large-scale sculptures Pradier collaborated with Froment-Meurice, designing jewelry in a \u0027Renaissance-Romantic\u0027 style.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EHe is buried in the P\u0026egrave;re-Lachaise cemetery. Much of the contents of his studio were bought up after his death by the city museum of Geneva.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIn 1846 Gustave Flaubert said of him:\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022quote_box\u0022\u003EThis is a great artist, a true Greek, the most antique of all the moderns; a man who is distracted by nothing, not by politics, nor socialism, and who, like a true workman, sleeves rolled up, is there to do his task morning til night with the will to do well and the love of his art.\u003C/div\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EAn exhibition, \u003Cu\u003EStatues de chair: sculptures de James Pradier\u003C/u\u003E (1790-1852) at Geneva\u0027s Mus\u0026eacute;e d\u0027art et d\u0027histoire (October 1985 - February 1986) and Paris, Mus\u0026eacute;e du Luxembourg, February - May 1986) roused some interest in Pradier\u0027s career and esthetic.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cu\u003ESource:\u003C/u\u003E\u003C/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cli type=\u0022square\u0022\u003ECompiled from entries in the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Pradier\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003EWikipedia\u003C/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022http://60.1911encyclopedia.org/P/PR/PRADIER_JAMES.htm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 class=\u0022link\u0022\u003E1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica\u003C/a\u003E.\u003Cp\u003E","Awards":null,"HasAlbums":false,"HasPortraits":true,"HasRelationships":true,"HasArticles":false,"HasDepictedPlaces":false,"HasLetters":false,"HasLibraryItems":false,"HasProducts":false,"HasSignatures":false,"HasVideos":false,"HasMapLocations":true,"TotalArtworks":36}