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(3) Nicolas-Sébastien Adam
(b Nancy, 22 March 1705; d Paris, 27 March 1778). Son of (1) Jacob-Sigisbert Adam. He was trained by his father and then joined his eldest brother (2) Lambert-Sigisbert in Paris. Failing to win the Prix de Rome, he travelled to Italy at his own expense, working on the way in the Château de La Mosson, near Montpellier, and arriving in Rome in 1726. There he was introduced by Lambert-Sigisbert to Cardinal Melchior de Polignac, for whom he restored a number of antique marbles. He returned to Paris in 1734 and pursued what was to be a busy career. Although he was not received (reçu) as a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris until 1762, his reception piece, a marble statue of Prometheus (Paris, Louvre), is one of the best of the century. He collaborated with Lambert-Sigisbert on the flamboyant lead group of the Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite for the Bassin de Neptune in the park at Versailles (1735–40; in situ; see fig.) and also worked for the Rohan family at the Hôtel de Soubise, Paris, executing bas-reliefs of the Loves of the Gods (1736) in the Salon de la Princesse. He was employed by the Bâtiments du Roi at the Chambre des Comptes in Paris, at the abbey of St Denis and at Versailles, where he produced a bronze relief of the Martyrdom of Ste Victoire for the chapel (1747; in situ). Among his other works were a marble vase with the attributes of Autumn for the park at the Château de Choisy, Val-de-Marne (1745; now New York, Met.); a statue of Iris Attaching her Wings (marble, 1775–6; Versailles, Château), finished after his death by his nephew Clodion; Religion Welcoming a Convert (plaster, 1745; Paris, St Paul-St-Louis); and bas-reliefs of the History of Apollo for the Hôtel de la Boexière, Paris (c. 1753; now Paris, Château de Bagatelle). However, his most accomplished work is the funerary monument to Catharina Opalinska, wife of Stanislav I Leszczynski, Grand Duke of Lorraine (coloured and white marbles and bronze, 1749; Nancy, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours). This white marble group shows the deceased being guided heavenwards by an angel silhouetted against a pyramid of dark marble; executed with great technical refinement, it is considered one of the finest and most genuinely pathetic French funerary monuments of the 18th century. The art of Nicolas-Sébastien, though equally influenced by the Roman Baroque and just as versatile and polished, is more delicate and subtle than that of Lambert-Sigisbert. It was to have a marked influence on the work of Clodion.
Part of the Adam (i) family
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