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Étienne Maurice Falconet | |
|---|---|
 Falconet byJean-Baptiste Lemoyne, 1741 | |
| Born | 1 December 1716 |
| Died | 24 January 1791(1791-01-24) (aged 74) |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Notable work | TheBronze Horseman |
| Movement | Baroque,Rococo,Neoclassicism |
| Children | Pierre-Etienne and 3 others |
| Relatives | Marie-Anne Collot (daughter-in-law) |
Étienne Maurice Falconet (1 December 1716 – 24 January 1791) was a Frenchbaroque,rococo andneoclassical sculptor, best-known for his equestrian statue ofPeter the Great, theBronze Horseman (1782), inSt. Petersburg,Russian Empire, and for the small statues he produced in series for theRoyal Sévres Porcelain Manufactory.[1][2]
Falconet was born to a poor family inParis. He was at first apprenticed to a marble-cutter, but some of his clay and wood figures, with the making of which he occupied his leisure hours, attracted the notice of the sculptorJean-Baptiste Lemoyne, who made him his pupil.[3] One of his most successful early sculptures was ofMilo of Croton, which secured his admission to the membership of theAcadémie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1754.[4]
He came to prominent public attention in theSalons of 1755 and 1757 with his marbles ofL'Amour (Cupid) and theNymphe descendant au bain (also calledThe Bather), which is now at theLouvre.[5] In 1757 Falconet was appointed by theMarquise de Pompadour as director of the sculpture atelier of the newManufacture royale de porcelaine atSèvres,[6] where he brought new life to the manufacture of unglazedsoft-paste porcelain figurines, small-scale sculptures that had been a specialty at the predecessor of the Sèvres manufactory,Vincennes.
The influence of the painterFrançois Boucher and of contemporary theater[7] and ballet are equally in evidence in Falconet's subjects, and in his sweet, elegantly erotic, somewhat coy manner. Right at the start, in the 1750s, Falconet created for Sèvres a set of whitebiscuit porcelaingarnitures of tabletopputti (Falconet's"Enfants") illustrating "the Arts," and meant to complement the manufacture's grand dinner service ("Service du Roy").[8] The fashion for similar small table sculptures spread to most of the porcelain manufacturies of Europe.
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He remained at the Sèvres post until he was invited to Russia byCatherine the Great in September 1766. AtSt Petersburg he executed a colossal statue ofPeter the Great in bronze, known as theBronze Horseman, together with his pupil and then daughter-in-lawMarie-Anne Collot.[9] In 1788, back in Paris, he became AssistantRector of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.[10] Many of Falconet's religious works, commissioned for churches, were destroyed at the time of theFrench Revolution.[4] His work on private commissions fared better.
He found time to studyGreek andLatin, and also wrote several essays on art:Denis Diderot confided to him the chapter on "Sculpture" in theEncyclopédie,[11][12] released separately by Falconet asRéflexions sur la sculpture in 1768. Three years later, he publishedObservations sur la statue de Marc-Aurèle, which may be interpreted as the artistic program for his statue of Peter the Great. Falconet's writings on art, hisOeuvres littéraires, came to six volumes when they were first published, atLausanne, in 1781–1782.[4] His extensive correspondence withDiderot,[13] where he argued that the artist works out of inner necessity rather than for future fame, and that with EmpressCatherine the Great of Russia[14] reveal a great deal about his work and his beliefs about art.
Falconet's somewhat prettified and too easy charm incurred the criticism of theEncyclopædia Britannica's eleventh edition:"His artistic productions are characterized by the same defects as his writings, for though manifesting considerable cleverness and some power of imagination, they display in many cases a false and fantastic taste, the result, most probably, of an excessive striving after originality."[4]
Hermann Göring stole Falconet'sFriendship of the Heart from theRothschild collection at Paris for the art collection of hisCarinhall hunting lodge.[15]
In 2001/2002, when the Musée de Céramique at Sèvres mounted an exhibition of Falconet's production for Sèvres, 1757–1766, its subtitle was "l'art de plaire" ("the art of pleasing").[1]
The painterPierre-Étienne Falconet (1741–1791) was his son.[16] A draftsman and engraver, he provided illustrations to his father's entry on "Sculpture" for the DiderotEncyclopédie.[6]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Falconet, Étienne Maurice".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 141.
"Фальконэ, Этьен-Морис" .Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (in Russian). 1906.
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