Jacques-Edme Dumont

Who was Jacques-Edme Dumont?

Jacques-Edme Dumont was a French sculptor.

Dumont came from a large dynasty of sculptors that included his great-grandfather Pierre Dumont, grandfather François Dumont, father Edme Dumont and children Augustin-Alexandre Dumont and Jeanne Louise Dumont Farrenc. He was a pupil of Augustin Pajou, and in 1788 he won the Prix de Rome. From 1788 to 1793, he lived in Italy, after which he returned to his native France, in the hope a commission from the National Convention during the French Revolution. However he secured no such commission, and began producing small statuettes and medallions for sale. Later, he received commissions for statues of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert. During the Bourbon Restoration, Dumont made a monument to Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes and a statue of French general Charles Pichegru, which has since been destroyed.

Dumont was also a great sculptor of portraits, and notable examples of his work include a bust of his mother Marie-Françoise Berthault, and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma and wife of Napoleon.