Antoine-Augustin Préault



Antoine-Augustin Préault (6 October 1809 – 11 January 1879) was a French sculptor of the "Romantic" movement. Born in the Marais district of Paris, he was better known during his lifetime as Auguste Préault.

Biography
A student of David d'Angers, Préault first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1833. He was not favorably looked upon by some of the artistic community's elite due to his outspokenness and because he was part of the circle of activists who participated in the French Revolution of 1830. During that period of turmoil, Préault's studio was vandalized and many of his plaster models were destroyed. As a result of these circumstances his work has been largely overshadowed by his contemporaries.

Antoine-Augustin Préault died in Paris in 1879 and was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery.

"'The fever of poetry, the drunkenness of beauty, the horror of vulgarity, and the madness of glory possessed and tormented Préault'" Words of nineteenth century critic describing Préault's work.

"'Before this retrospective, Préault's work had fallen into oblivion, three masterpieces excepted: Tuerie (The Killing) (Musée des Beaux Arts, Chartres), Ophelia (Musée d'Orsay) and the Christ in the Eglise Saint Gervais.

The exhibition therefore allowed the public to discover anew the great aspects of his work: subjects inspired by literature (Ophelia, Dante, Virgil); portraits and medallions (Delacroix); funeral sculpture (Silence), which draws its strength from its atemporality; and such public commissions as the statue of Clemence Isaure in the Jardin du Luxembourg. By the sheer violence of his subjects, the novelty of his compositions and the spirit of his art, Préault may well deserve, as far as sculpture is concerned, the accolade of the greatest poet of unhappiness'" Comments by Musée d'0rsay at time of exhibition held on Preault's work. Préault is buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

References B

 * Auguste Préault : sculpteur romantique, . Author: compilation. (1997) Gallimard