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Louis-Pierre Deseine (1749–1822) was a French sculptor, who was born and died in
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 ...
. He is known above all for his portrait busts and imaginary portraits.


Life

Deseine trained in several ateliers, notably with
Augustin Pajou Augustin Pajou (; 19 September 1730 – 8 May 1809) was a French sculpture, sculptor, born in Paris. At eighteen he won the Prix de Rome, and at thirty exhibited his ''Pluton tenant Cerbère enchaîné'' (now in the Louvre). Selected works Paj ...
, whose portrait bust he exhibited at the Salon of 1785. He won a first prize from the Académie, which sent him to study further in Rome (1781–84). At the Salon of 1789, he showed a portrait head of
Belisarius BelisariusSometimes called Flavia gens#Later use, Flavius Belisarius. The name became a courtesy title by the late 4th century, see (; ; The exact date of his birth is unknown. March 565) was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under ...
. In 1814 he published a history of 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 ...
, of which he had been a member. He described himself in 1814 as a member of the academies of Copenhagen and of Bordeaux, and as holding the post of first sculptor to the
prince de Condé A prince is a Monarch, male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary title, hereditary, in some ...
, for whom he had executed statues in the 1780s for the dining room at
Chantilly Chantilly may refer to: Places France *Chantilly, Oise, a city ** US Chantilly, a football club *Château de Chantilly United States * Chantilly, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Chantilly (Charlotte neighborhood), North Carolina ...
,Michael Levey. where some drawings and maquettes are preserved. His elder brother, the little-known sculptor Claude-André Deseine (1740–1823) was a deaf-mute, whose Republican sensibilities and the exaggerated character of his portrait studies has encouraged
Michael Levey Sir Michael Vincent Levey, LVO, FBA, FRSL (8 June 1927 – 28 December 2008) was a British art historian and was the director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986. Biography Levey was born in Wimbledon, London, and grew up in Leigh-on-S ...
see him as a contrast to his brother.


Works

* Portrait bust of
Augustin Pajou Augustin Pajou (; 19 September 1730 – 8 May 1809) was a French sculpture, sculptor, born in Paris. At eighteen he won the Prix de Rome, and at thirty exhibited his ''Pluton tenant Cerbère enchaîné'' (now in the Louvre). Selected works Paj ...
(1785), terracotta, Paris, musée du Louvre * Portrait bust of Claude-Pierre-Louis Durand at the age of four (1788), plaster, Paris, musée du Louvre * Portrait bust of Louis XVI (1790), marble, Versailles * Portrait bust of Louis XVII (1790), marble, Versailles * ''Mucius Scaevola'' (1791), marble, Paris, musée du Louvre. This was his ''morceau de reception'' when he became an Academician * Portrait bust of Charles VIII (1799), terracotta, Paris, école nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts * ''Portrait d'Abélard'' (1801), plaster bust in a stone medallion, Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts * Portrait bust of Pope Pius VII (1805, shown at the Salon of 1806), plaster, tinted to resemble terracotta, Rueil-Malmaison, château de Malmaison * Portrait bust of Pierre-Nicolas de Fontenay, sénateur (1743–1806) (1807), marble, Versailles * Portrait bust of the duc de Luynes, pair de France, plaster, (1808, signed) sold, Château de Belle Eglise, 5 June 2006, lot 306 * Portrait bust of Jean-Baptiste Bessières, duc d'Istrie, maréchal de France (1813), plaster patinated bronze, île d'Aix, musées de l'île d'Aix * Portrait bust of Louis-Antoine-Henri de Bourbon, duc d'Enghien (1817), plaster, Chantilly, musée Condé. The monument was finished after his death by his nephew. * Portrait bust of Louis XVIII, (1817), Chantilly, musée Condé * Maquette for the monument of the duc d'Enghien at Vincennes (1817), plaster over wood, Chantilly, musée Condé * Maquette for the monument of the Cardinal de Belloy, plaster, (c 1819) musée du Louvre. The monument to Cardinal de Belloy was erected in
Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissemen ...
, 1819


Not dated

* ''Two Nymphs supporting a putto'', terracotta, inscribed, sold Sotheby's Arcade, 22 July 1993, lot 292 * Terracotta maquette, ''Virgin and Child'' (sold Bonham's London, 9 May 1996, lot 7 * ''The Entry at Vienna'', bas-relief on the
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel () () is a triumphal arch in Paris, located in the Place du Carrousel. It is an example of Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical architecture in the Corinthian order. It was built between 1806 and 1808 to commemo ...
, Paris * Portrait bust of Jean-Joachim Winckelmann, tinted plaster, musée de Versailles, * ''Comte Jean-Étienne-Marie Portalis'', over lifesize statue, marble, Versailles


Drawings

Drawings by Deseine are at the musée du Louvre ("Étude d'un homme debout avec une draperie sur l'épaule") and the musée Condé, Chantilly ("Le Déluge", "Deux Romains saluant un empereur assis" and "Lars Porsenna"); the musée Condé also conserves two projects for the monument to the duc d'Enghien.


References


Sources

* Emmanuel Schwartz, ''Les Sculptures de l'École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Histoire, doctrines, catalogue,'' (École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris) 2003.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deseine, Louis Pierre Prix de Rome for sculpture 18th-century French sculptors French male sculptors 19th-century French sculptors 1749 births 1822 deaths Sculptors from Paris 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists