Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (11 October 1710,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 17 April 1795, Paris) was a French sculptor who tempered a neoclassical style with Rococo charm and softness, under the influence of his much more famous brother-in-law,

Jean-Baptiste Pigalle Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (; 26 January 1714 – 20 August 1785) was a French sculptor whose work was influenced by both baroque and neo-classical trends. Life Pigalle was born in Paris, the seventh child of a carpenter. Although he failed to ob ...

Biography

Allegrain was born into a well-established family of landscape painters in

. His single most famous work, a marble ''Bather'' (''La Baigneuse''), was commissioned for the royal residences through 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 ...

in 1755; a modelled sketch was shown at the Salon of 1757. When the finished marble was finally exhibited at the Salon of 1767 it received a sensational reception. In 1772 Louis XV presented it to Mme du Barry for her

Château de Louveciennes A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking reg ...

, where she had recently completed the famed pavilion that introduced the new

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

, usually associated with the "Louis Seize style", into court circles. After the King's death she was pleased enough with it to commission from Allegrain a pendant bather in 1776, which he delivered in 1778 (''illustration''). presented in the landscape garden as ''Vénus'' and ''Diane'' they provided an allegory of her past sensual love and her present chaste condition. (Both are conserved in the Louvre Museum.) There are small-scale patinated bronze reproductions, and both pieces remained popular and often reproduced through the nineteenth century: in 1860, when the Goncourt brothers referred to "the refined legs of a ''Diana'' of Allegrain","les jambes fines d'une Diane d'Allegrain", ''Les hommes de lettres'' 1860
on-line
) their readers conjured up the familiar image. His portrait by

Joseph Duplessis Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (22 September 1725 – 1 April 1802) was a French painter known for the clarity and immediacy of his portraits. Early life He was born in Carpentras, near Avignon, into a family with an artistic bent and received hi ...

, 1774, earned the painter a place in the

Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (; ) was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

. Among his pupils were his son and François-Dominique-Aimé Milhomme. He died in Paris.

Notes

References

*Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Isabelle Leroy-Jay Lemaistre (sous la direction de Jean-René Gaborit, Musée du Louvre. département des sculptures du Moyen Âge, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes. ''Sculpture française II. Renaissance et temps modernes'' vol. 1 Paris, 1998

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allegrain, Christophe-Gabriel 1710 births 1795 deaths Sculptors from Paris 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 18th-century French male artists Members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture