Pierre Julien (20 June 1731 – 17 December 1804) was a French sculptor who worked in a full range of

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

and neoclassical styles. He served an early apprenticeship at

Le Puy-en-Velay Le Puy-en-Velay (, literally ''Le Puy in Velay''; oc, Lo Puèi de Velai ) is the prefecture of the Haute-Loire department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Located near the river Loire, the city is famous for its c ...

, near his natal village of

Saint-Paulien Saint-Paulien (; Auvergnat: ''Sant Pàulhan'') is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France. Population See also *Communes of the Haute-Loire department The following is a list of the 257 communes of the Haute-Loire ...

, then at the École de dessin of Lyon, then entered the Parisian atelier of Guillaume Coustou the Younger. In 1765 he won a

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 ...

for sculpture with a

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

panel of a subject from Antiquity and entered the

École royale des élèves protégés École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

, which offered a special course of study under the direction of the painter

Louis-Michel van Loo Louis-Michel van Loo (2 March 1707, Toulon – 20 March 1771, Paris) was a French Painting, painter. Biography He studied under his father, the painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo, at Turin and Rome, and he won a prize at the ''Académie Royale de ...

. He was a pensionnaire at the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in ...

, 1768 to 1773, where he was influenced by the tide of neoclassicism that affected his fellow students. As pensionnaires were expected to do, he sent back to France a marble copy from the Antique, slightly reduced in scale, of the so-called ''Cleopatra'', the Vatican's ''

Sleeping Ariadne The '' Sleeping Ariadne'', housed in the Vatican Museums in Vatican City, is a Roman Hadrianic copy of a Hellenistic sculpture of the Pergamene school of the 2nd century BC, and is one of the most renowned sculptures of Antiquity. The reclining f ...

'', which remains at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

. On his return to France and his former master, he worked on the sculpture for the mausoleum of Louis, ''le Grand Dauphin'' in the cathedral of Sens. After a failed try in 1776, with his ''Ganymede'', he was received by the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1778, with a ''Dying Gladiator'' for his ''morceau de réception'' He was named one of the original members of the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...

, 1795, and a chevalier of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, 1804. He received commissions from the comte d'Angiviller, 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 ...

, on behalf of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

for figures in a suite of life-size portraits of the great men of France: he realized a '' Jean de La Fontaine'' and a '' Nicolas Poussin'', whom he elected to represent in his nightclothes, approximating the draperies of a Roman

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

. While fulfilling commissions in Paris, for the Church of Sainte-Geneviève (now the Panthéon, Paris), or at the Pavillon de Flore of 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 ...

, he sculpted in 1785 a virtuoso marble ensemble of the nymph Amalthea and the goat that nurtured

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

for the Queen's fastidiously-appointed Dairy (''La Laiterie'') at the

Château de Rambouillet The Château de Rambouillet (), known in English as the Castle of Rambouillet, is a château in the town of Rambouillet, Yvelines department, in the Île-de-France region in northern France, southwest of Paris. It was the summer residence of t ...

; for his model, he adapted the pose of the famous Capitoline Venus.

Bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s from the ''Laiterie'', reckoned among his masterpieces, were sold at auction in 1819, but were retrieved by the State in 2005, thanks to a gift from the son of the great dealer-collector

Daniel Wildenstein Daniel Leopold Wildenstein (11 September 1917 – 23 October 2001) was a French art dealer, historian and owner-breeder of thoroughbred race horses. He was the third member of the family to preside over Wildenstein & Co., one of the most succe ...

Major works

* ''Gladiateur mourant'', marble, 1779,

Musée du 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 ...

. * ''Ganymède versant le nectar à Jupiter changé en aigle'', marble group, 1776–1778, Paris, musée du Louvre * '' Jean de La Fontaine'', marble, 1783-85. Musée du Louvre * '' Nicolas Poussin'', marble, 1789 - 1804. Musée du Louvre * ''Nicolas Poussin'' terracotta sketch model, about 1787 - 1788. Musée du Louvre * '' Amalthée et la chèvre de Jupiter'', marble group, 1787 for the ''Laiterie'' at Rambouillet. Laiterie de la Reine at Rambouillet * ''La Jeune fille à la chèvre'', terracotta statuette, 1786. Musée du Louvre * ''Sainte Geneviève rendant la vue à sa mère'',Illustration
/ref> terracotta bas-relief, 1776. Musée du Louvre

Notes

References

*Michael Preston Worley, 2003. ''Pierre Julien: Sculptor to Queen Marie-Antoinette''. The first modern monograph. *Exhibition Catalogue. Gilles Grandjean and Guilhem Scherf. "Pierre Julien 1731-1804". Le Puy-en-Velay, France: Musée Crozatier, 2004.

External links

''Europe in the age of enlightenment and revolution''
a catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Julien (see index)
''Grove Dictionary of Art''
on-line excerpts * {{DEFAULTSORT:Julien, Pierre 1731 births 1804 deaths People from Haute-Loire 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors Prix de Rome for sculpture 18th-century French male artists