CLODION, clo-de-edi' (real name CLAUDE MICHEL), French sculptor: b. Nancy, Lorraine, 1738; d. Paris 1814. His mother was a daugh ter of Jacob Sigisbert Adam, a prominent French sculptor. Clodion went to Paris in 1755 and entered the studio of his uncle, Lambert Sigisbert Adam, also a sculptor. Upon his uncle's death he continued his studies with Pigalle. In 1759 the winning of a prize opened the way for him to go to Rome three years later. He remained there until 1771 with orders for the Duc de la Rochefoucauld and Catherine II of Russia. When he returned to Paris it was with the fame of a successful artist. The king, the nobility and many other wealthy patrons kept him busily at work — not includ ing the clergy who looked on Clodion's daily ings with sujets libres with no little severity. As daring as his nude groups occasionally are, however, the sculptor's style is so masterly, his classical feeling for relations of form is so sure—even when copying in realistic manner the charms of a pretty model— that it would need a prude indeed to object to him. He is to be ranked with the most admirable of the Dix-Huitieme artists. Like so many of them he was relegated to a quite secondary place after the Revolution, which hated his patrons and had no use for the elegance in ideas or in art of the foregoing period. Clodion himself
felt that he was no longer a man of his time. He withdrew to his native Nancy when commis sions failed in Paris. The capital lured him back however in 1798 and he tried to fit in with the new style in art. It is pleasant to know that he again achieved some measure of well-being, though he never again reached the point of happiness and favor that he had en joyed under Louis XVI. We may note the following works by Clodion in public galleries: Nantes, 'Children Dancing About Pan' ; Ver sailles,