Francisque Joseph Duret

Place: Paris

Born: 1804

Death: 1865

Biography:

Francisque Joseph Duret (19 October 1804 – 26 May 1865) was a French sculptor, son and pupil of François-Joseph Duret (1732–1816).
He also studied under Bosio, and won the Prix de Rome in 1823. In 1833 he exhibited his Neapolitan Fisher Dancing the Tarantella, now in the Louvre, a spirited statue in bronze, which established his reputation. In the same class is his Neapolitan Improvisatore (1839, Leipzig Museum). His works executed for public buildings include: France Protecting her Children (1855), a group in the grand style for the Louvre; two bronze caryatids for the tomb of Napoleon in the Invalides; a colossal Christ in the church of the Madeleine; the statues of Comedy and Tragedy for the Théâtre Français; marble statues of Dunois, Philippe of France, Chateaubriand, and Richelieu at Versailles; and the group for the Fontaine Saint-Michel, representing that saint wrestling with Satan.
One of his works, Grape-picker Extemporizing, made in 1839, shows a man playing a mandolin. The sculpture shows the instrument in the period when its popularity had declined outside of Italy. The instrument had left the concert halls, becoming a folk instrument.
He received the medal of honor in 1855, was an Officer in the Legion of Honor, and was made a member of the Institut de France in 1845. As professor in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, he was more influential through his teaching than through his works. Among his students was Louis-Léon Cugnot.
Neapolitan Fisher Dancing the Tarantella, 1833
Grape-picker Extemporizing,1839
Cirque d'hiver Paris
Fontaine Saint-Michel, Paris
The tragedy (musée des Augustins, Toulouse), c. 1851-1875

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