Augustin Pajou


Augustin Pajou was a French sculptor, born in Paris. At eighteen he won the Prix de Rome, and at thirty exhibited his Pluton tenant Cerbère enchaîné.

Selected works

Pajou's portrait busts of Buffon and of Madame du Barry, and his statuette of Bossuet, are amongst his best works.
When Bernard Poyet constructed the "Fontaine des Innocents" from the earlier edifice of Pierre Lescot, Pajou provided a number of new figures for the work. Mention should also be made of his bust of Carlin Bertinazzi at the Comédie Française, and the monument to Marie Leszczyńska, Queen of France.
Pajou was one of the main artists whose work was included in the collection of the Comédie-Française at the end of the 18th century. Others were Jean-Baptiste d'Huez, Jean-Joseph Foucou, Simon-Louis Boizot and Pierre-François Berruer.
Pajou was commissioned by Napoleon to make the copies of the Medici Lions now situated in the garden of the Villa Medici 1803. Pajou died in Paris on 8 May 1809.
The Courtauld Institute of Art, the Frick Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, the Hermitage Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Louvre, Beli Dvor, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon, France, Musée des Augustins, Musée des Beaux-arts, Nantes, France, Musée National du Château, Pau, France, the National Gallery of Art, the National Gallery of Australia and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are among the public collections holding sculpture by Augustin Pajou.

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