Étienne Le Hongre

Who was Étienne Le Hongre?

Étienne Le Hongre was a French sculptor, part of the team that worked for the Bâtiments du Roi at Versailles. Le Hongre was one of the first generation of sculptors formed by the precepts of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. At the Bain des Nymphes he was one of the sculptors providing lead bas-reliefs for the fountain setting that featured the work of François Girardon. Le Hongre provided other bronze figures for the Parterre d'Eau.

Le Hongre was born in Paris, the son of a menuisier, a carver of furniture and boiseries. He trained in the atelier of Jacques Sarrazin along with Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy and Pierre Le Gros the Elder, all of whom later worked at Versailles. He was accepted at the Académie in June 1653 and went to Rome, provided by the king with a purse of 500 livres; he returned to Paris in 1659. He was accepted as a member of the Académie in April 1667 and taught in the Academy schools as an assistant professor, full professor and assistant rector, which afforded him the lodgings in the Galeries du Louvre where he died.

Etienne Le Hongre provided decorative architectural sculpture throughout his career: at the Palais du Louvre he was paid 180 livres in 1663, executed pediment trophies on the exterior of the Galerie d'Apollon facing the Seine, 1667, sculpted friezes and masques for the facade now facing the rue de Rivoli, 1668, and provided capitals and sculpted detail for Perrault's colonnade, 1668–70, for which he received in total 2910 livres. As he showed his skill he was commissioned to sculpt a large figure of Peace for the garden front of the Tuileries, 1666. At Versailles, full-size sculptures were delivered by Le Hongre among many for the Grand cour: Thetis, Plenty, Authority and Africa.