Laurent Marqueste

Who was Laurent Marqueste?

Laurent-Honoré Marqueste was a French sculptor in the neo-Baroque Beaux-Arts tradition. He was a pupil of François Jouffroy and of Alexandre Falguière and won the Prix de Rome in 1871. On his return he made his official debut at the Paris salon of 1874. In 1893 he became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts. He became a member of the Institute in 1894, he received the Legion of Honour in 1884,.

His virtuosic work, often combining two figures, tended to be executed by specialist carvers working by pointing up his models, as had become common studio practice among French sculptors in the later nineteenth century. Among his commissions are a large number of allegorical architectural figural sculptures, historical portraits and others for the monumental Gare d'Orsay, the Collège des Beaux-Arts, the Grand Palais for the 1900 Exposition, and the Hôtel Dufayel, Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Public monuments by Marquest are to be found also, in which was very much criticised; as well as monuments for North and South America. He was also the author of portrait busts and statues of Victor Hugo, Léo Delibes, Ferdinand Fabre and a large output of classical subjects. He gained the Grand Prix at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900.