RIVIÈRE, Théodore
(b. 1857, Toulouse, d. 1912, Paris)

Biography

French sculptor. He studied at the École des Beaux Arts under Jouffroy and Falguière, going on to spend five years working in the studio of Mercié. Rivière was one of the leading Orientalist sculptors. He not only drew on literary texts but travelled extensively in North Africa, the Far East and South America. For a time he lived in Carthage, where he completed his two Orientalist groups based on Flaubert's novel, Salammbô, published in 1862.