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Nicolas Coustou




He was the son of a woodcarver, who gave him his first instruction in art. At eighteen he moved to Paris , to study under C.A. Coysevox , his mother's brother, who presided over the recently-established Académie Royale De Peinture Et De Sculpture ; and at twenty-three he gained the Colbert prize, which entitled him to four years education at the French Academy at Rome . He afterwards became rector and chancellor of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

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From the year 1700 he worked with Coysevox at the palaces of Marly and Versailles . He was remarkable for his facility. He was influenced by Michelangelo and Algardi , and tried to combine the best characteristics of each. A number of his works were destroyed during the French Revolution ; the most famous of those that remain are "La Seine at la Marne", the "Berger Chasseur", and "Daphne Pursued by Apollo" in the gardens of the Tuileries , the Bas-relief "Le Passage du Rhin" in the Louvre , the statues of Julius Caesar and Louis XV in the Louvre , and the "Descent from the Cross" behind the choir altar of the cathedral of Notre Dame De Paris .

He worked closely with his younger brother, Guillaume Coustou , also a renowned sculptor and director of the Academy; it is not always possible to ascribe a particular work to one or the other. His son, Guillaume Coustou The Younger was also a sculptor.


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