Nicolas Coustou
| Nicolas Coustou | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Nicolas Coustou at work, 1710 |
|
| Born | 9 January 1658 Lyon |
| Died | 1 May 1733 (aged 75) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | scultpure |
| Training | C.A. Coysevox, Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Académie de France à Rome |
| Movement | Late French Baroque |
| Works | La Seine at la Marne, Berger Chasseur, Descent from the Cross, Julius Caesar |
| Influenced by | Michelangelo, Algardi |
| Awards | Prix de Rome |
Nicolas Coustou (9 January 1658 – 1 May 1733) was a French sculptor and academic.
Born in Lyon, Coustou was the son of a woodcarver, who gave him his first instruction in art. At eighteen he moved to Paris, to study under C.A. Coysevox, his mother's brother, who presided over the recently-established Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture; and at twenty-three he gained the Colbert prize (the Prix de Rome, which entitled him to four years education at the French Academy at Rome. He afterwards became rector and chancellor of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
From the year 1700 he worked with Coysevox at the palaces of Marly and Versailles. He was remarkable for his facility. He was influenced by Michelangelo and Algardi, and tried to combine the best characteristics of each. A number of his works were destroyed during the French Revolution; the most famous of those that remain are "La Seine at la Marne", the "Berger Chasseur", and "Daphne Pursued by Apollo" in the gardens of the Tuileries, the bas-relief "Le Passage du Rhin" in the Louvre, the statues of Julius Caesar and Louis XV in the Louvre, and the "Descent from the Cross" behind the choir altar of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.
He worked closely with his younger brother, Guillaume Coustou, also a renowned sculptor and director of the Academy; it is not always possible to ascribe a particular work to one or the other. His son, Guillaume Coustou the Younger was also a sculptor.
Coustou died in Paris in 1733 at the age of 75.
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
