1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pigalle, Jean Baptiste

PIGALLE, JEAN BAPTISTE (1714–1785), French sculptor, was born in Paris on the 26th of January 1714. He was the seventh child of a carpenter. Although he failed to obtain the grand prix, after a severe struggle he entered the Academy and became one of the most popular sculptors of his day. His earlier work, such as “Child with Cage” (model at Sèvres) and “Mercury Fastening his Sandals” (Berlin, and lead cast in Louvre), is less commonplace than that of his maturer years, but his nude statue of Voltaire, dated 1776 (Institut), and his tombs of Comte d'Harcourt (c. 1764) (Notre Dame) and of Marshal Saxe, completed in 1777 (Lutheran church, Strassburg), are good specimens of French sculpture in the 18th century. He died on the 28th of August 1785.

See P. Tarbé, Vie et œuv de Pigalle (1859); Suard, Éloge de Pigalle, Mélanges de littérature.