Denis Foyatier


Denis Foyatier was a French sculptor in the neoclassical style.

Biography

Foyatier was the child of a family of modest means. He started by working on religious figures, while taking a design course at Lyon. In 1817, he entered the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. In 1819 he exhibited his first pieces and, aged 26, was awarded a scholarship for the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Médicis.
At the Villa Médicis he created the mould for his piece Spartacus, which is very well known. A Royal Command of 1828 for a production in marble made him famous.
After a brilliant career as a sculptor and painter, he died on 19 November 1863 and is buried in the Petit-Clamart cemetery in a suburb of Paris.
Some of Foyatier's works have been lost; several were melted down during the Second World War.
He was the father-in-law of the sculptor Jules Blanchard.

Places

Several towns have named streets after him:
and some smaller communes in the Loire department: