Jean Guillaume Moitte


Jean-Guillaume Moitte was a French sculptor.

Life

Moitte was the son of Pierre-Etienne Moitte. He became the sculptor of Pigalle then Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. He won the Prix de Rome for sculpture in 1768 with David carrying the head of Goliath in triumph. He then entered the École royale des élèves protégés before a stay at the Rome, though it was cut short due to illness.
In the 1770s, Moitte drafted numerous designs for the royal goldsmiths of the king, Robert-Joseph Auguste and then his son Henri Auguste, and participated in decorative works for monuments in the French capital. He was commissioned to produce sculptures of generals who had died in battle such as one of Custine for the musée de Versailles, the tomb of Louis Desaix at Grand Saint-Bernard or that of Charles [Victor Emmanuel Leclerc|Leclerc] at the Panthéon de Paris. He also designed and sculpted the pediment for the Panthéon during the French Revolution, with the theme of the Fatherland crowning the civil and heroic virtues Moitte and Philippe-Laurent Roland were the main sculptors for the exterior of the hôtel de Salm.
Moitte was a member of the Institut de France, the Légion d'honneur and professor of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Works

Louvre

Law, Numa, Manco Cápac, Moses and a pharaoh , bas-reliefs, bronze, Paris, musée du LouvreMinerva, statuette, terracotta, Paris, musée du LouvreThe Triumph of Voltaire, drawing, Paris, musée du Louvre, département des arts graphiquesOrpheus in the underworld, drawing, Paris, musée du Louvre, département des arts graphiquesOrpheus and Eurydice, drawing, Paris, musée du Louvre, département des arts graphiquesThucydides, Herodotus, Egyptian divinity and an Inca, stone reliefs, Paris, palais du Louvre, cour Carrée, attic of the west façade, to the right of the Pavillon de l’Horloge

Hôtel de Salm, Palais de la Légion d’honneur

  • Two Renommée, bas-reliefs, stone, main gateFestival of the Pales, bas-relief, stone, at the base of the courtyard
  • Five bas-reliefs and six allegorical statues, stone, corps central quai Anatole-FranceCeres, Mars and Diana, terracotta studies for statues on the coupole

Other

Rousseau observing childhood's first steps, group, terracotta, Paris, musée CarnavaletDansers, frieze of the attic of the barrière d’Enfer, stone, Paris, place Denfert-RochereauPortrait of Leonardo da Vinci, white marble bust, Fontainebleau, châteauThe Rhine and The Nile, deux bas-reliefs for the tomb du général Desaix dans l’hospice du Grand-Saint-Bernard ainsi que ses deux plâtres modèles, bas-reliefs, Versailles, châteaux de Versailles et de TrianonAdam Philippe, comte de Custine, commander in chief , larger-than-life-size marble statue, Versailles, châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, completed by Jean-Baptiste StoufGiovanni Domenico Cassini , terracotta equestrian statuette, Bayonne, musée BonnatA sacrifice, drawing, Dijon, musée MagninDeparture, drawing, Vizille, Musée de la Révolution française