Pierre Lepautre
Pierre Lepautre (4 March 1659 – 22 January 1744) was a French sculptor, a member of a prolific family of artists in many media, who were active in the 17th and 18th centuries. He was born and died in Paris. He won the Prix de Rome, for study at the French Academy in Rome, where he was a pensionnaire from 1683 to 1701.
Also recorded as Pierre le Pautre · Pierre Le Pautre · Pierre II Le Pautre · Pierre LePautre
Pierre Lepautre
Nicolas de Largillière · Norton Simon Museum · Public domain
- Born
- 4 March 1659
- Died
- 22 January 1744
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- sculptor · printmaker · draftsperson · etcher · engraver
- Known for
- Faune au chevreau · Faun with a Young Goat · Atalante
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Documentary summary
Pierre Lepautre (4 March 1659 – 22 January 1744) was a French sculptor, a member of a prolific family of artists in many media, who were active in the 17th and 18th centuries. He was born and died in Paris. He won the Prix de Rome, for study at the French Academy in Rome, where he was a pensionnaire from 1683 to 1701.
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Note VALÉORINE
Pierre Lepautre (1659–1744) was a draftsperson, engraver and etcher, among other activities, of French nationality. The draftsperson was born and died in Paris.
Pierre Lepautre was educated at Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. The draftsperson worked in France. Activity centred on visual arts.
Among the works are Atalante, Faun with a Young Goat and Faune au chevreau. Languages used include French. Honours include Prix de Rome for sculpture.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 30 September 2026
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In this article
Biography
Biography
While in Rome he sent back to France a number of sculptures demonstrating his skill, among which were the Faune au chevreau of 1685, which went to ornament the gardens at Château de Marly. Lepautre returned to Paris in 1701. His Atalante (1704) was also destined for Marly. From 1705 to 1710, he was occupied with decorative bas-reliefs and sculptures for the royal chapel of Versailles, under the artistic supervision of Jules Hardouin-Mansart: his are the colossal statues of Saint Ambrose and Saint Gregory. A retable in the form of a monumental gateway in the église de Saint-Eustache, Paris, illustrates the assumption of Saint Agnes. • Illustration — Arria et Paetus, 1695 His completion of the over-lifesize group of Arria et Pœtus (finished 1695) after the design begun by Jean-Baptiste Théodon proceeded too slowly and Énée portant son père Anchise suivi d'Ascagne (signed and dated 1716), after François Girardon demonstrated his facility and fidelity as an executant. The sculpture of Aeneas carrying Anchises was begun in Rome, where Lepautre made numerous terracotta bozzetti for it. The sculpture gained renown for Lepautre: bronze reductions of it were made for collectors. The 19th-century classicizing sculptor David d'Angers had one of Lepautre's designs for it, which was given by his widow to the museum in his native city. Lepautre preferred to become a member of the modest artists' Académie de Saint-Luc, for which he held a lifetime post as Rector, rather than try for the more prestigious Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture.
Key facts
Key facts
• Born — 4 March 1659 • Died — 22 January 1744 • Illustration — Atalante, for Louis XIV's Marly, 1704
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
The authorities additionally record the headings Pierre le Pautre, Pierre Le Pautre, Pierre II Le Pautre, Pierre LePautre and Pierre, II Le Pautre. His recorded language was French. He was the child of Jean Lepautre the Younger. One child is recorded: Angélique Lepautre.
Identity
Identity
Pierre Lepautre is recorded as sculptor, printmaker, draftsperson and etcher. Lepautre received Prix de Rome for sculpture.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1659
Pierre Lepautre was born in 1659.
1744
Pierre Lepautre died at Paris.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Chalmers, Alexander. The general biographical dictionary: containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation, particularly the British and Irish, from the earliest accounts to the present time, Volume 24. Oxford University. 214. 1815.
- 2.There is some confusion concerning the relationships in this family. Elaine Evans Dee, writing in the Dictionary of Art, says he is the son of , a designer and engraver (who was the son of , a master joiner, who died in 1660), and the brother of Antoine Le Pautre (1621–1679), a well known architect (see "Le Pautre family ", vol. 19, p. 210, in The Dictionary of Art, 1996). Françoise de La Moureyre, writing in the same dictionary, says he is the son of Jean Le Pautre (1622–1676), a master mason and building contractor [see "(3) Pierre Le Pautre II", vol. 19, p. 213, in The Dictionary of Art, 1996]. He was called the son of the architect Antoine Lepautre in Marie Nicolas Bouillet. Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie (1869), s.v. Lepautre".
- 3.The group was in the Garden of the Tuileries when it was taken to the Musée du Louvre in 1872. It is one of three Lepautre sculptures formerly at Marly now displayed with the Atalante in the Cour Marly.
- 4.Sculptures and decorative details in the Royal Chapel
- 5.Arria et Caecinus Paetus was begun in 1685; Matthieu de La Teullière, Director of the Académie de France assigned it to Lepautre, who finished it in 1695.
- 6.Left unfinished in Rome when he returned to France, it was shipped in 1715 and finished in Paris. Set up in the Tuileries Garden in 1717, where it remains (Geneviève Bresc-Bautier, Les Sculptures des jardins du Louvre, du Carrousel, et des Tuileries (Paris, 1986) vol. II:264-69).
- 7.Mentioned in correspondence between Matthieu de La Teullière and the director of the Bâtiments du Roi, published in Anatole de Montaiglon, Correspondance des Directeurs de l'Académie de France à Rome avec les surintendants des bâtiments (vol. I, Paris, 1887), especially letters of 16 April and 31 July 1696 and 19 November 1697, noted in Bresc-Bautier 1986 and by Betsy Rosasco, "A Terracotta 'Aeneas and Anchises' attributed to Laurent Guiard", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 45.2 (1986:2-15); Rosasco notes the former misattribution to Lepautre of terracottas of this subject, based on references in the correspondence.
- 8.A small bronze, formerly in the collection of Arnold Seligmann, Paris, is in the Art Gallery of Ontario.
- 9.Henri Auguste Jouin,, Notice des peintures et sculptures du Musée d'Angers (Angers, 1870) "Annexe du Galerie David", no. 759, p. 238.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q608934: Pierre LepautreWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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