(b Lyon, 9 Sept 1736; d Marseille, 24 Aug 1797). French sculptor. He studied at the Marseille academy and then became a pupil of Etienne-Maurice Falconet at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris. After twice failing to win the Prix de Rome, he left for Rome in 1760, and his entire career was based on the fringes of the Académie de France, in contact with British, German and Scandinavian Neo-classical artists. Little is known of his first 15 years in Rome, but he executed two low reliefs entitled the Swoon of Artemisia (1769; Lyon, Mus. B.-A.) and a Holy Family (1773; Rome, Pal. Barberini), which reveal a sound technique, though a still hesitant style. However, Poncet’s statue of Artemisia (known from an engraving, Milan, Castello Sforzesco) foreshadowed his future development, and his election to the Accademia degli Arcadi in 1771 was the first sign of his social success. On a journey to Paris in 1775, Poncet stopped in Lyon, where he was received (reçu) as a member of the Lyon academy. At Ferney he made a bust of Voltaire, a striking masterpiece of great realism and vitality. He used the plaster model (Lyon, Acad. Sci., B.-Lett. & A.) to execute a number of replicas in marble (e.g. Dijon, Mus. B.-A.; and Dunkirk, Mus. B.-A.), until his work was overshadowed by that of Jean-Antoine Houdon.