Pierre Le Gros the Elder
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Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
, often working to designs provided by Charles Le Brun
Charles Le Brun
Charles Le Brun , a French painter and art theorist, became the all-powerful, peerless master of 17th-century French art.-Biography:-Early life and training:...
(like for L'Eau (the Water)) and collaborating with other sculptors of the Bâtiments du Roi
Bâtiments du Roi
The Bâtiments du Roi was a division of Department of the household of the Kings of France in France under the Ancien Régime. It was responsible for building works at the King's residences in and around Paris.-History:...
. His son, Pierre Le Gros the Younger
Pierre Le Gros the Younger
Pierre Le Gros was a French sculptor, active almost exclusively in Baroque Rome. Nowadays, his name is commonly written Legros, while he himself always signed as Le Gros; he is frequently referred to either as 'the Younger' or 'Pierre II' to distinguish him from his father, Pierre Le Gros the...
worked almost entirely in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.
The elder Le Gros was born at Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
and was a pupil of Jacques Sarrazin
Jacques Sarrazin
Jacques Sarazin or Sarrazin was a French sculptor, who is less known for his paintings. His preparatory drawings in chalk have become more prominent in recent decades.-Life:...
. He was received into the Académie in 1666 and completed many commissions for Versailles including statues in bronze and marble, bas reliefs and fountains. At Versailles, his bronze fountain sculpture of a cupid, "the Genius of Royal Power" seated on an eagle that ejected a spout of water, was engraved by Jean le Pautre
Jean le Pautre
Jean le Pautre was a French designer and engraver. Le Pautre was an apprentice to a carpenter and builder. In addition to learning mechanical and constructive work, he developed considerable skill with the pencil...
(his father-in-law) in the 1670s as part of the series of images that helped disseminate the Baroque Classicism of Versailles throughout Europe.
Another fountain sculpture for Versailles, Cherubs Playing with a Lyre, of 1672-1673, was removed from Versailles in the mid-eighteenth century and is now in the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
, Washington DC.
Projects for the Bâtiments du Roi were distinctly a coordinated cooperative affair. A case in point is the Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, designed by Pierre Bullet and carried out between 1672 and 1674. The team of sculptors providing bas-reliefs for the spandrel
Spandrel
A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
s of the monumental rusticated triumphal arch
Triumphal arch
A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat entablature or attic on which a statue might be...
were Gaspard Marsy, Pierre Legros, Etienne Le Hongre
Etienne Le Hongre
Etienne Le Hongre was a French sculptor, part of the team that worked for the Bâtiments du Roi at Versailles. Le Hongre was one of the first generation of sculptors formed by the precepts of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture...
and Martin Desjardins
Martin Desjardins
Martin Desjardins, born Martin van den Bogaert was a French sculptor and stuccoist of Dutch birth.He was born at Breda, the son of a milliner in a house that would later carry the name 'de Drye Bredasche Hoeden'...
and their assistants. Le Gros' contribution was The Capture of Limburg, 1675, but the subject, a seated woman by a supine lion, was dictated to Le Gros, and the general composition as well.
His herms representing the Four Seasons are conserved in the Louvre Museum
His first wife, Jeanne (married 1663, died 1668), was the sister of the sculptors Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy
The brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy were French sculptors...
, his second wife, Marie (married 1669), was the daughter of the engraver Jean le Pautre
Jean le Pautre
Jean le Pautre was a French designer and engraver. Le Pautre was an apprentice to a carpenter and builder. In addition to learning mechanical and constructive work, he developed considerable skill with the pencil...
.
He died in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.