NICOLAS COUSTOU (1658-1733) was the son of a wood-carver at Lyons, where he was born. At 18 he removed to Paris, to study under C. A. Coysevox, his mother's brother, president of the recently established Academy of Painting and Sculpture ; and at 23 he gained the Colbert prize, which entitled him to four years' education at the French academy at Rome. He afterwards be came rector and chancellor of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. From a 70o he was an active collaborator with Coysevox at the palaces of Marly and Versailles. His most fa mous works are "La Seine et la Marne," "La Saone," the "Berger Chasseur" in the Tuileries gardens, the bas-relief "Le Passage du Rhin" in the Louvre, and the "Descent from the Cross" placed behind the choir altar of Notre Dame at Paris.
His younger brother, GUILLAUME COUSTOU (1677-1746), also gained the Colbert prize; but refusing to submit to the rules of the academy, he wandered homeless, through the streets of Rome. At length he was befriended by the sculptor Legros, under whom he studied. Returning to Paris, he was in 1704 admitted into the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, of which he after wards became director; and, like his brother, he was employed by Louis XIV. His finest works are the famous group of the "Horse Tamers," originally at Marly, now in the Champs Elysees at Paris, the colossal group "The Ocean and the Mediterranean" at Manly, the bronze "Rhone," which formed part of the statue of Louis XIV. at Lyons, and the sculptures at the entrance of the Hotel des Invalides partly destroyed during the Revolution and subsequently restored.
Another GUILLAUME COUSTOU (1716-1777), the son of Nico las, was also a sculptor.
See Louis Gougenot, Eloge de M. Coustou le jeune (1903) ; Arsene Houssaye, Histoire de fart francais au XVIIIe siecle (186o) ; Lady Dilke, Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. xxv. (Igoe).