Antoine Étex

Who was Antoine Étex?

Antoine Étex was a French sculptor, painter and architect.

He first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1833, his work including a reproduction in marble of his Death of Hyacinthus, and the plaster cast of his Cain and his race cursed by God. Adolphe Thiers, who was at this time minister of public works, now commissioned him to execute the two groups of Peace and War, flanking the arch on the east facade of the Arc de Triomphe. This last, which established his reputation, he reproduced in marble in the Paris Salon of 1839.

The French capital contains numerous examples of the sculptural works of Étex, which included mythological and religious subjects besides a great number of portraits. Among the best known of his architectural productions is Étex's tomb of Théodore Géricault in Père Lachaise Cemetery, which includes a bronze figure of the painter, and a low-relief version the painter's controversial Raft of the Medusa on a front panel.

Étex's paintings include the subjects of Eurydice and the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, and he also wrote a number of essays on subjects connected with the arts.