DUSEIGNEUR, Jehan

(b. 1808 Paris, d. 1866 Paris)

Jehan Duseigneur (also Jean-Bernard du Seigneur), French sculptor. At the age of 14, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, became successively the pupil of François-Joseph Bosio, Louis Dupaty (1771-1825) and Jean-Pierre Cortot (1787-1843). At 16, he was awarded the “third medal”. The education he received is classic because Bosio was a student of Canova. However, he moves away from the classical school, looking into the Middle Ages for chivalrous and Christian new inspirations. He follows with great interest the anatomy lessons and is attracted to the forms dictated by the nature.

In 1831 he achieved renown when he exhibited Roland furieux (Orlando Furioso), now in Louvre and often regarded as the first romantic sculpture. He turned quickly almost exclusively to the production of religious works, religious buildings decoration. The rest of his activity is devoted to executing busts and medallions (busts of Jacques de Rougé, Marquis du Plessis-Bellière, now in the Palace of Versailles, and the poet Gérard de Nerval).

Crucifixion

This marble group is in the Calvary Chapel of the church of Saint-Roch in Paris.

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Dagobert

Jean-Bernard, known as Jehan, Duseigneur was a French Romantic sculptor.

During the reigns of Louis XVIII Louis Philippe, many commissions were given to various artists to execute statues of great men and women who played an important role in the history of France. These statues were placed in the Château de Versailles and in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.

This statue was placed on the first floor of the north wing of the Château.

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Orlando Furioso

Although Romanticism made its appearance in painting from 1820 onwards, there was a gap of ten years before it was expressed in sculpture at the Salon of 1831 by Duseigneur’s Orlando Furioso, with its bulging muscles and twisted limbs, and the Tiger and Crocodile by Barye. These works were soon followed by Etex’s Cain, executed in Rome, as a bravado gesture because he did not win the Grand Prix, and by the creations of Pr�ault.

It was not until the Second Empire that Romantic sculptors won official recognition in France. The state did not commission the casting of Orlando Furioso until 1867.

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