RUXTHIEL, Henri-Joseph

(b. 1775 Lierneux, d. 1837 Paris)

French sculptor. He was the pupil of Houdon then of David and carried out a number of busts and statues for the French imperial family. He was a member of the team of sculptors (including Boizot, Bosio, Bartolini, Ramey, Rude, Corbet, Clodion and Ruxthiel) which was commissioned to execute the frieze on the Vendome column.

The honour of modelling the first portrait bust of the King of Rome (the son of Napoleon and Marie-Louise) was given to Ruxthiel. Ruxthiel’s small bust was intended to serve as a model for mass production in Sevres-porcelain. Some marble busts do also exist and though it is rather lifeless, this portrait earned Ruxthiel the title Sculpteur des Enfants de France, awarded to him by Napoleon in 1812.

His masterpiece, the Zephyr and Psyche is in the Louvre.

Elfriede Clarke de Feltre

Napoleon and his family chose the Italian Canova as their favourite portraitist. Nevertheless, the art of portraiture was still very much alive in France. Its qualities of realism and life brought to a peak by Houdon recur inn the animated physiognomy of the little Elfriede Clarke de Feltre while the masterful handling of the marble recalls the influence of Canova on Ruxthiel.

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Zephyr and Psyche

The statue was exhibited at the Salon of 1814 and it is considered the masterpiece of this Neoclassical sculptor.

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