SCULPTURE and ARCHITECTURE
 

SCULPTURE

France

Augustin Pajou.
 

Augustin Pajou Augustin Pajou, (born Sept. 19, 1730, Paris, France—died May 8, 1809, Paris), French sculptor and decorator known mainly for his portrait busts of famous contemporaries, such as his patroness, Madame du Barry, and for directing the decoration of the Versailles opera house. Pajou, a student of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, won the Prix de Rome in 1748 and studied in Italy from 1752 to 1756. He was elected to the Paris Academy in 1760. He executed bas-reliefs and small decorative figures in bronze, silver, and marble and later did work on the court of the Palais Royal, Paris, and the cathedral at Orléans. A directive from King Louis XVI for the creation of statues honouring great Frenchmen led him to do many busts, including those of such notables as Georges Buffon, René Descartes, and J.-B. Bossuet. Appointed keeper of the king’s antiquities (1777), he was commissioned to complete the Fontaine des Innocents, Paris, in the manner of the 16th-century sculptor Jean Goujon. Pajou’s Psyche Abandoned (1791) offers an example of his graciously seductive style. It is one of the few creations in which he restrained his usual decorative style in favour of classical purity.   Encyclopaedia Britannica

Augustin Pajou. Bust of Madame du Barry
1773
Marble, height 60 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

Augustin Pajou. Portrait de Natalie de Laborde
1789

Augustin Pajou. Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
1783

Augustin Pajou. Psyche Abandoned
1790
Marble, height 180 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris




Augustin Pajou. Psyche Abandoned (details)




Augustin Pajou. Ceres
Marble
32 x 71 x 25 cm
Louvre (France)

Augustin Pajou. Allegory of the Queen Marie Leszczynska
1771
Marble
85 x 161 x 63 cm
Louvre (France)




Augustin Pajou. Ariadne abandoned by Theseus
Marble
Louvre (France)




Augustin Pajou. Bacchante holding a tambourine, with two children
Marble
Louvre (France)




Augustin Pajou. River god
Terracotta
Louvre (France)




Augustin Pajou. Mercury
Marble
Louvre (France)




Augustin Pajou. Pluto enchaining Cerberus
Marble
49 x 71 x 50 cm
Louvre (France)




Augustin Pajou. Anacréon arrachant une plume
aux ailes de l'Amour
1750
 

Augustin Pajou. Hubert Robert
1780
Marble
École des Beaux-Arts, Paris




Augustin Pajou. Bust of Louis XVI
1779
Marble
Musée Lambinet, Versailles




Augustin Pajou. Mantel clock
1785-90
Gilt bronze, marble, and gilded copper, height 94 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York




Augustin Pajou. Bas-relief
1768-70
Wood
Opera House, Versailles




Augustin Pajou. Bas-relief
1768-70
Wood
Opera House, Versailles

 

Augustin Pajou.
Princess of Hesse­Homburg before the Altar of Immortality
1759
Marble
Hermitage (St Petersburg, Russian Federation)