Clodion

Nymph and Satyr, 1775. Terracotta, approx. 23 inches high. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. (bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913.)

Clodion (real name Claude Michel) (1738-1814). French sculptor (known by the diminutive form of his first name), who created some of the most charming works of his age. the son-in-law of Pajou and the nephew of L.-S. Adam, he trained with the latter and briefly with Pigalle. He produced a few large-scale works, but he excelled chiefly in small statuettes and terracotta figures and groups. They are often of light-hearted classical subjects - nymphs and satyrs and son on - and have the wit and verve of the best Rococo art. After the Revolution he changed his style completely to suit the sterner Neoclassical taste; his later work included carvings on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1806-9) in Paris which was built to commemorate Napoleon's victories. (Ian Chilvers)