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Edme Bouchardon Biography
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One of the most important French sculptors of the 18th century, Edme Bouchardon was a pupil of Guillaume Coustou before winning the Prix de Rome in 1722. Admitted into the Académie Royale in 1744, he obtained prestigious Royal and public commissions throughout his career. As a draughtsman, Bouchardon worked almost exclusively in red chalk, and many of his drawings were used as preparatory studies for his sculptural projects. That his drawings were greatly admired by his contemporaries is seen in the comments of the younger artist Charles-Nicolas Cochin, who described Bouchardon as ‘certainement le plus grand sculpteur et le meilleur dessinateur de son siècle. The collector and connoisseur Pierre-Jean Mariette also rated Bouchardon very highly as a draughtsman and owned many drawings by the artist. A large number of drawings by Bouchardon – numbering around 1,300 sheets - are in the Louvre; most of these were acquired from the artist’s descendants.
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