SCHOENEWERK, Alexandre
French sculptor of German descent, born in Paris and naturalised French. He became a student of David d’Angers, and in turn of Pierre-Jules Jollivet (1794-1871) and Henri-Joseph-François Triqueti (1804-1874).
Most French museums have examples of his work, including especially the Louvre and Angers. Among many recorded sculptures, he worked on the façade of many churches (e.g. the Chapel of the Sorbonne - St Thomas Aquinus), on the Louvre façade itself, the vestibule of the Opera House in Paris and the Memorial to the Duke of Brunswick in Geneva.
Between 1845 and 1878 he was awarded four prizes at the Paris salon, at which he exhibited regularly. Schoenewerk enjoyed the royal patronage of the Princess Mathilde under the second empire and was made Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in 1863. Deeply passionate about his art , he flung himself to his death from a third story window when his Salomé failed to impress at the 1885 Salon.
