Pierre-Jean David d'Angers Mary Fairfax, Mrs William Somerville, 1780 - 1872. Writer on science About 1833

Biography

Born 1788
Died 1856
Nationality French
Birth place Angers
Death place Paris

The son of a wood carver from Angers, France, d'Angers went to Paris in 1808 to work in the studio of sculptor Philippe-Laurent Roland. After winning the 1811 Prix de Rome – a scholarship for French art students to study in Rome – he studied there where he met the Italian Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. On his return to France, he worked on public and private commissions, executing statues of major political figures, tomb monuments, bust portraits, portrait medallions and bas-reliefs. Despite his strong grounding in Neoclassicism, his work heralds the arrival of the Romantic style in French sculpture. In gratitude for a scholarship from his native city when he was an impoverished student, the sculptor called himself 'David d'Angers'.