Jean-Jacques Pradier was a Swiss-born French sculptor best known for his work in the neoclassical style. In 1807, Pradier left his birthplace of Geneva to work in Paris with his elder brother, an engraver. He won the Prix de Rome, which enabled him to study in Rome from 1814-1818. He studied under Jean Auguste-Dominique Ingres in Paris. In 1827, he became a member for the Academie des Beaux-Arts and a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pradier oversaw the finishing of his sculptures himself. He was a friend of the Romantic poets Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo and Theophile Gautier, and his atelier was a center for these luminaries, presided over by his beautiful mistress, Juliette Drouet, who married Hu...