BUYSTER, Philippe de

Flemish sculptor, active in France. He studied in Antwerp under Gilles van Papenhoven (documented 1595-1616). When he was still young, he settled in Paris, where in 1632 he was appointed sculptor in ordinary to the king and given a residence in the Tuileries. He became a member of the Académie in 1651. His works include: the mausoleum of Cardinal de La Rochefoucauld, created for a chapel in the church of St Geneviève, the funerary statue of the bishop of Rueil in the cathedral at Angers, the statue of Marguerite de Crevecoeur, originally situated in the church of St-Germain-l’Auxerrois and now in the Louvre, a bust of cardinal de La Rochefoucauld and another of Le Camus, the bishop of Bellay. Buyster also produced a series of figures for the palace and gardens at Versailles - Neptune, Ceres, Bacchus, Momus, Flora, the Satirical Poem, along with several others.