(b Paris, ?1659; d Paris, 22 Jan 1744). Sculptor, son of Jean Le Pautre (1622–76), a master mason and building contractor. In 1683 he won the Prix de Rome, and the following year he went to the Académie de France in Rome, where he was a talented and much praised student. Among his Roman works were two copies after the Antique executed for Louis XIV, the marble groups Faun with a Kid (1685–7; Paris, Louvre) and Meleager (1687–92; on loan to the Hôtel Matignon, Paris). He also executed two original works, the marble groups Paetus and Arria (1691–5; Paris, Louvre), from a model by Jean Théodon and started by him, and Aeneas Carrying his Father Anchises (1696–1718; Paris, Louvre), from a model by François Girardon. Both demonstrate his early mastery of complex Baroque compositional effects, and the popularity of the latter group is attested by numerous reductions in terracotta and bronze recorded in 18th- and 19th-century sales. He returned to Paris in 1701 and, although invited to become a member of the Académie Royale, preferred instead to join the Académie de St Luc, of which he eventually became a Recteur for life.

Part of the Le Pautre family

• Le Pautre, Pierre, II (1660-1744)
  • Francin, Claude
  • Le Pautre
  • Mansart: (2) Jules Hardouin Mansart, §1(iii): Late works, 1681 and after
  • collaboration
    • Mansart: (2) Jules Hardouin Mansart, §2: Critical reception and posthumous reputation
  • works
    • Coustou: (2) Guillaume Coustou (i)
    • Marly, château of
    • Théodon, Jean
    • Urban planning, §III, 5(iii): c 1450–c 1800: Political seats and centres of refuge