FALCONET, TIENNE-MAURICE

born Dec. 1, 1716, Paris died Jan. 24, 1791, Paris sculptor who adapted the classical style of the French Baroque to a pretty and intimate Rococo ideal. Patronized by Mme de Pompadour, he did work that is the quintessence of taste in the Louis XV period. Falconet was first apprenticed to a carpenter and later became a pupil of the sculptor J.-B. Lemoyne. Nominated director of the Svres porcelain factory in 1757, he supplied numerous models to be executed in Svres biscuit ware, which gave a character of delicate, mannered grace to a whole phase of his work, as seen in his Bather (1757; Louvre). From 1766 until 1778 he was in Russia, summoned by Catherine the Great at Diderot's suggestion. While there, he executed the impressive bronze equestrian statue of Peter the Great. He returned to Paris in 1781 and, suffering a stroke in 1783, produced no sculpture the rest of his life.