The directory «Artists»

Rochet Louis
(1813—1877)

French sculptor and anthropologist. Rochet studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Pierre-Jean David d’Angers, but withdrew from the Prix de Rome competition to pursue Oriental languages (especially Chinese) and natural history, at the same time providing models for commercial sculpture. He returned to monumental sculpture in 1838 and followed the example of David d’Angers in sculpting commemorative statues for the provinces, such as Marshal Drouet d’Erlon (bronze, 1844–9; Reims, Place de la Couture). Rochet distinguished himself in the costumed pageantry of figures from earlier French history, such as the equestrian William the Conqueror (bronze, 1846–51; Falaise, Hôtel de Ville), the Marquise de Sevigné (bronze, 1857; Grignan) or Charlemagne Accompanied by Roland and Olivier (bronze, 1853–67; erected 1878, Paris, Place du Parvis Notre Dame). The most popular of these historical re-creations was Napoleon Bonaparte as a Student at Brienne (plaster, exh. Salon, 1853; marble, exh. Exposition Universelle, 1855; bronze, 1855, erected 1859; Brienne, Hôtel de Ville). The bronze monument to Don Pedro I of Brazil (1855–62; Rio de Janeiro) involved Rochet in anthropological and zoological research, as its granite base was enriched by sculptures of groups of natives and local fauna, symbolizing South American rivers. A historicizing approach to style, first used by Rochet in his colossal bronze Notre Dame de Myans, erected near Chambéry in 1855, re-emerged in a later series of Classical subjects, initiated by the ‘Archaic’ Minerva (plaster, gilded bronze and silver plated, exh. Salon 1864).

Fujeira, 1972, Napoleon in Brienne