Biography

Sculptor, painter, draughtsman and designer. He was a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Stouf and Etienne-Pierre-Adrien Gois. In 1784 he won the Prix de Rome with the bas-relief Joseph Sold into Slavery by his Brothers (Paris, Louvre), which is in a style very different from that of his mature statues and reliefs. He spent the next four years as a pupil at the Académie de France in Rome, where he was much influenced by the sculpture of antiquity and by the Neo-classical work of Antonio Canova. He was approved (agréé) as an associate of the Académie Royale in 1789, and though he never became a full member he exhibited regularly at the Salon throughout his career.

Like other sculptors of the period, Chaudet showed his concern for design by an interest in drawing; unlike most of them, he was also a painter, as was his wife Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet (née Gabiou, 1767-1832). He received important Imperial commissions, summed up by the statue of Napoleon for the top of the Place Vendome column.