DAVID, PIERRE JEAN ( 17S9-1S56). A French sculptor. He was born at Angers, March 12, 1789, and was called David d'Angers to dis tinguish him from David the painter. He went to Paris to study sculpture. Through the liber ality of David the painter, who gave him gratu itous instruction, he was finally enabled to take a prize and to pursue his studies in Rome. lie was also a pupil of the liculptor Rolland, and at Rome he frequented the ateliers of Canova and Tho•waldsen. But, notwithstanding this clas sien1 training, he copied nature with freedom and fidelity, and belongs to the early naturalists of this century, although not entirely free from classic conventions. He was eminent as a po•trait i,;t in sculpture, always producing a work of real art. The ease with which he handled relief is more manifest in his results than in foreshortening, where form is truthfully defined, and yet remains suggestive. The work of David d'Angers is best studied in his own town, and at Pere-la-Chaise. He executed ninny colossal works and numerous busts, but his fame also rests upon his medal lions, of which those of Bonaparte and Mme. David are best known. Of his large works, there are the fine groups of the pediment of the Pan theon in Paris, the commission for which was given him by the new Government after the July revolution, during which David had fought in the ranks. In 1848 he was a member of the Con
stituent Assembly. After the coup d'etat by Napoleon III., he was sent into exile, but, after some time spent in Greece, he returned to France. He died January 5, 1S56. Among the statues executed by David are "Madame de Staid"; "Talma," for the Thatre Francais; "envier," "Corneille" (Rouen), and "Lafayette" (Wash ington). Fenelon's monument at Cambray is also his work, as are busts of Goethe, Schel ling, and Dannecker. His two chief works, be -sides the pediment of the Pantheon, are the tomb of General Gohert (Pere-la-Chaise), a very real istic production; and his "Philopremen" (Louvre) in classic garb. David was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, a professor in the Aeademy of Painters, and a member of the Institute. Con cult: Brownell, History of French Art (New York, 1892) Gonse, La sculpture francaise r7epuis le XIV. siecle (Paris, 1895) ; Jouim David d'Angers (Paris• 1878).