Pierre-Jules Cavelier

The son of a silversmith and furniture maker, Cavelier was born in Paris. He was a student of the sculptors David d'Angers and the painter Paul Delaroche, Cavelier won the Prix de Rome in 1842 with a plaster statue of Diomedes Entering the Palladium. The young sculptor lived at the Villa Medici from 1843–47. Appointed in 1864 Professor at the École des beaux-arts, he trained many students there, including René Rozet, Édouard Lantéri, Hippolyte Lefèbvre, Louis-Ernest Barrias, Eugène Guillaume, Fernand Hamar, the British Alfred Gilbert and the American George Grey Barnard, as well as conducting his own prolific career as a sculptor.

• Two caryatids, sketch group, terracotta, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1854 • Paris on the exterior of the Gare du Nord, Paris • Cornélie, Mother of Gracchi group, marble, Paris, Orsay Museum, 1861 • Angel on the bell tower, Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris

• Illustration — Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, Musée de Orsay • Illustration — Pierre Abelard at the Louvre • Illustration — Endurance, Palais Longchamp • Illustration — Angel on the bell tower, Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois