Pierre Jean David d'Angers

Pierre-Jean David d'Angers (1788-1856) was a French sculptor of the Romantic period who produced an extraordinary survey of his era through portrait sculpture. Born in Angers, he studied under the painter Jacques-Louis David (no relation) and won the Prix de Rome in 1811.

David d'Angers is best known for creating roughly 500 portrait medallions of famous contemporaries, including Goethe, Victor Hugo, Balzac, and Paganini. His monumental pediment sculpture for the Pantheon in Paris, completed in 1837, remains one of the most ambitious architectural sculptures of the 19th century. Our collection includes 6 works at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cleveland Museum of Art.