Nicolas Coustou
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Nicolas Coustou (1658-1733) was the son of a wood-carver at Lyons, where he was born.
At eighteen he removed to Paris, to study under CA Coysevox, his mother's brother, who presided over the recently-established Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture; and at three-and-twenty he gained the Colbert prize, which entitled him to four years education at the French Academy at Rome. He afterwards became rector and chancellor of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
From the year 1700 he was a most active collaborator with Coysevox at the palaces of Marly and Versailles. He was remarkable for his facility; and though he was specially influenced by Michelangelo and Algardi, his numerous works are among the most typical specimens of his age now extant. The most famous are "La Seine at la Marne", "La Sane", the "Berger Chasseur" in the gardens of the Tuileries, 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.
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