(b Paris, 1620; d Paris, 15 June 1670). French sculptor. He was a member of a gifted family of sculptors, painters and masons in the service of the kings of France who held the reversion of the title Garde des Antiques et des Marbres du Roi au Louvre. His great-grandfather Louis Lerambert I (c. 1538–1614) contributed to the decoration of the Valois Chapel at Saint-Denis Abbey; his great-uncle Henri Lerambert (1550–1609) was well-known for his tapestry cartoons; and his father Simon Lerambert (1577–1637) specialized in the engraving and carving of epitaphs for tombs. Louis Lerambert trained in the studio of Simon Vouet, where he met Jacques Sarazin. In 1637 he inherited the appointment of Garde des Antiques et des Marbres. Skilled as a poet, musician and dancer, he was received at court, where he earned numerous commissions for decorative sculpture, portrait busts and tombs. Among the few surviving examples of these works are the stucco decorations in the chapel at the château of Bonne-Chamarande, Essone, executed for Pierre Mérault c. 1660, and allegorical low reliefs from the tomb of Jean Courtin and his Wife (1660; Blois Cathedral). Lerambert was received (reçu) into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Paris, with a terracotta bust of Cardinal Mazarin in 1664 (untraced; marble version, 1664–9; Paris, Bib. Mazarine). He was among the first generation of sculptors to work for Louis XIV on the embellishment of the gardens at the château of Versailles, executing twelve stone terms (1664; destr.), as well as stone statues of Pan, a Faun, a Hamadryad and a Nymph, dancing or holding musical instruments (1665; destr.; both series known from engravings by Simon Thomassin and Jean Le Pautre). Among his surviving works at Versailles are the well-known pair of marble Sphinxes on the Parterre des Fleurs (1667–8), carved in collaboration with Jacques Houzeau from a model by Sarazin, and six of the delightful fountains with playing children for the Allée d’Eau (originally gilt lead, 1669; recast in bronze, 1688). With their wit, vivacity and delicacy, these latter works show that Lerambert was one of the most gifted sculptors of the first generation at Versailles. Antoine Coyzevox was among his pupils.