Pierre Cacault
Encyclopedia
Pierre René Cacault was a French painter.
, Pierre worked as a painter at the family faience
business and helped manage it for a while before leaving for Paris to study painting. In 1774, as bursar of the town of Nantes
, he left for Rome, where he studied under Vien and began producing history paintings. He then painted for nearly 20 years, meeting many other artists such as Mathurin
and Louis Crucy
, Coste
, David
, Antonio Canova
and François-Frédéric Lemot
.
From 1780 the town of Nantes petitioned him (in vain) to become its roads-architect as his father had been, but the anti-French riots of 1793 forced him to leave Rome and return to Nantes. From 1796 Pierre bought the métairies at Clisson and in the region. He set up home in the former rectory of the Madeleine in 1798. In his brother's absence (in Italy until 1803) he took on overseeing the construction of buildings for a museum-school, completed in 1804, in a picturesque Italian-inspired architectural style. This exhibiting of the Cacault collection was, however, temporary - on his brother's death in 1805, Pierre tried in vain to negotiate the sale of the museum and its collections (whose leadership Pierre transferred to Lemot) to the government. On 27 January 1810 Nantes's mayor Bertrand-Geslin bought the collection for the town, and two days later Pierre died.
Life
The younger brother of the diplomat and collector François CacaultFrançois Cacault
François Cacault was a French diplomat of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.-Life:François's father was a master artist in faience, road engineer and designer of a 1775 map of Nantes which served as the basis for plans to embellish the town...
, Pierre worked as a painter at the family faience
Faience
Faience or faïence is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip...
business and helped manage it for a while before leaving for Paris to study painting. In 1774, as bursar of the town of Nantes
Nantes
Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....
, he left for Rome, where he studied under Vien and began producing history paintings. He then painted for nearly 20 years, meeting many other artists such as Mathurin
Mathurin Crucy
Mathurin Crucy was a French architect and urban planner, who conceived a major Neo-Classical architectural programme for Nantes which deeply marked the town.- Life :...
and Louis Crucy
Louis Crucy
Louis Crucy was a French architect and brother of Mathurin Crucy, with whom he worked on the naval facilities at Indre, near Nantes, from 1800 onwards, as they expanded due to the war effort against England.- Life :...
, Coste
Jean-Baptiste Coste
Jean-Baptiste Coste was a French painter and friend of Jacques-Louis David. His children included the painter Louise Zoé Coste.- Bibliography :* Principes élémentaires de lavis et d'aquarelles Jean-Baptiste Coste (1777–1809) was a French painter and friend of Jacques-Louis David. His children...
, David
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...
, Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...
and François-Frédéric Lemot
François-Frédéric Lemot
François-Frédéric Lemot was a French sculptor, working in the Neoclassical style.-Biography:Lemot was born at Lyon....
.
From 1780 the town of Nantes petitioned him (in vain) to become its roads-architect as his father had been, but the anti-French riots of 1793 forced him to leave Rome and return to Nantes. From 1796 Pierre bought the métairies at Clisson and in the region. He set up home in the former rectory of the Madeleine in 1798. In his brother's absence (in Italy until 1803) he took on overseeing the construction of buildings for a museum-school, completed in 1804, in a picturesque Italian-inspired architectural style. This exhibiting of the Cacault collection was, however, temporary - on his brother's death in 1805, Pierre tried in vain to negotiate the sale of the museum and its collections (whose leadership Pierre transferred to Lemot) to the government. On 27 January 1810 Nantes's mayor Bertrand-Geslin bought the collection for the town, and two days later Pierre died.