Pierre-Jules Cavelier

Who was Pierre-Jules Cavelier?

Pierre-Jules Cavelier was a French academic sculptor.

The son of a silversmith and furniture maker, Cavelier was born in Paris. He was a student of the sculptors David d'Angers and the painter Paul Delaroche, Cavelier won the Prix de Rome in 1842 with a plaster statue of Diomedes Entering the Palladium. The young sculptor lived at the Villa Medici from 1843–47.

Appointed in 1864 Professor at the École des beaux-arts, he trained many students there, including Édouard Lantéri, Hippolyte Lefèbvre, Louis-Ernest Barrias, Eugène Guillaume, the British Alfred Gilbert and the American George Grey Barnard, as well as conducting his own prolific career as a sculptor.