PAJOU, AUGUSTIN

born Sept. 19, 1730, Paris, Fr. died May 8, 1809, Paris French sculptor and decorator known mainly for his portrait busts of figures, such as his patroness, Madame du Barry, and for directing the decoration of the Versailles opera house. Pajou, a student of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, won the Prix de Rome (1748) and spent a dozen years in Italy. He was elected to the Paris Academy in 1760. He executed bas-reliefs and small decorative figures in bronze, silver, and marble and later did work on the court of the Palais Royal, Paris, and the cathedral at Orlans. A directive from King Louis XVI for the creation of statues honouring great Frenchmen led him to do many busts, including those of such persons as Georges Buffon, Ren Descartes, and J.-B. Bossuet. Appointed keeper of the king's antiquities (1777), he was commissioned to complete the Fontaine des Innocents, Paris, in the manner of Jean Goujon. Pajou's Psyche Abandoned (1791) offers an example of his graciously seductive style. It is one of the few creations in which he restrained his usual decorativeness in favour of classical purity.