John-Étienne Chaponnière, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJohn-Étienne Chaponnière
(1801-1835)
Date of Birth: 11-Jul-1801
Place of Birth: Geneva, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland
Date of Death: 19-Jun-1835
Profession: sculptor
Nationality: Switzerland
Zodiac Sign: Cancer 
About John-Étienne Chaponnière
- Jean-Élie Chaponnière, known as John-Étienne Chaponnière (and also known as Jean-Étienne Chaponnière; 11 July 1801 - 19 June 1835) was a Swiss sculptor active in Italy and France. Chaponnière was born in Geneva, where he studied at the school of the Société des Arts under Joseph Collart and Charles Wielandy.
- He moved to Paris in 1822, where he studied first at the École Gratuite de Dessin and then under sculptor James Pradier, who advised him to abandon painting for sculpture.
- After a period in Naples from 1827-1829, he moved to Florence where he lived with Lorenzo Bartolini, and then onwards to Rome.
- In 1827 he created his first major piece, la Jeune captive pleurant sur le tombeau de Byron, which he sold to the Musée Rath in Geneva.
- It was sufficiently well-received that he was made an honorary member of the Société des Arts.
- His subsequent works, including the Son of William Tell, an allegorical bas-relief for the bust of Marc-Auguste Pictet, and a Hunting and Fishing Group (later renamed Daphnis and Chloe), were also successful in Geneva in 1829.
- After a brief time in Switzerland, he returned to Paris, where his Daphnis and Chloe proved successful enough in 1831 that Adolphe Thiers commissioned a bas-relief of the taking of Alexandria for the Arc de Triomphe (which was subsequently shown in the Salon of 1834).
- Chaponnière retitled his Jeune captive figure as Une captive de Missolonghi, under which title it was exhibited in the Salon of 1833.
- His 1834 David and Goliath was also a success, and was in 1854 cast in bronze for Geneva's promenade des Bastions.
- In rapidly declining health, Chaponnière died in 1835 at Monnetier-Mornex (Haute-Savoie), near Geneva.
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