Claude Dejoux

Claude Dejoux (23 January 1732 – 18 October 1816) was a French sculptor.

Claude Dejoux
Claude Dejoux.
Medallion by David d'Angers
Born(1732-01-23)23 January 1732
Vadans, Jura, France
Died18 October 1816(1816-10-18) (aged 84)
Paris, France
NationalityFrench
OccupationSculptor

Early years

Claude Dejoux was born on 23 January 1732 in Vadans, Jura.

Descended from the Counts of Joux, Claude Dejoux was born into a family of poor farmers. He started work as a shepherd, but was soon apprenticed to a carpenter due to his love of sculpture.[1] He was apprenticed to the sculptor Guillaume Coustou the Younger (1716–1777), where he met Pierre Julien (1731–1804).[2] He became a close friend of Julien.[3] Dejoux was accepted by the Academy in 1778, and in 1779 was named Academician.[4] His morceau de réception for the academy was a marble sculpture of Saint Sébastien, 1.05 metres (3 ft 5 in) high, now held in the Louvre.[5] He became sculptor to King Louis XVI of France.[1]

Republic and empire
Love and Friendship (1783)

The French Revolution began in 1789. In 1792 Dejoux was made an adjunct professor. In 1795 he became a member of the newly formed Institut de France. He was commissioned by the French First Republic to make a sculpture of Calinat, which is now held by the Louvre. Dejoux was professor of David d'Angers, and supported him when he applied for a scholarship from the town of Angers.[4]

After Julien's death in 1804, Dejoux made a mausoleum ornamented with his portrait, which was erected in the garden of the Musée des monuments français. In 1815 this monument was transported to the Père Lachaise Cemetery.[3][6] Dejoux was made a knight of the Legion of Honour.[1] In 1805–07 he made a bronze statue to General Louis Desaix.[7] The monument was erected in the Place des Victoires in 1810.[8] It was destroyed in 1814 during the Bourbon Restoration.[7]

Claude Dejoux died on 18 October 1816 in Paris, aged 84.

Works

A partial list:

  • Saint Sébastien, marble statuette (1779), Paris, Louvre[5]
  • Portrait of Marie-Christine Brignole, Princess of Monaco (1739–1813), terracotta bust (1783), Paris, Louvre[9]
  • Statue that crowns the dome of the Pantheon, Paris
  • His sculptures for the facade of the Pavillon de Place des Victoires in Paris were destroyed during the Second French Empire. All that remains is a fragment of marble bas-relief of Charity (1788)
  • His monument of General Desaix (1808) for the Place des Victoires in Paris was destroyed in 1814.[7]

Pupils

Pupils included:

References
  1. Le sculpteur Claude Dejoux ... Vadans.
  2. Worley 2003, p. 11.
  3. Michaud 1818, p. 147.
  4. Reinis 1999, p. 130.
  5. Saint Sébastien, Louvre.
  6. Jay, Jouy & Arnault 1825, p. 31.
  7. Johns 1998, p. 99.
  8. Johns 1998, p. 98.
  9. Marie-Christine Brignole, Louvre.

Sources
  • Claude Dejoux in American public collections, on the French Sculpture Census website
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