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'.