Emmanuel FRÉMIET
1824–1910, France

Frémiet was born in Paris on 6 December, 1824. He became interested in art at an early age through the influence of his Aunt Sophie, who was married to the sculptor François Rude. He studied in Paris at the Petit École and the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes; after working as a painter of cadavers at the Paris morgue, he studied further with his uncle François Rude. He began exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1843. Over the next decade he became well known as an animalier sculptor, to such a degree that Napoléon III commissioned him to model a series of fifty-five polychromed soldiers of the French army. He succeeded Antoine-Louis Barye as Professor of Drawing at the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, becoming one of the most influential teachers in what was then the most influential cities in the art world. He was considered second only to Barye as an animalier. He was a member of the École des Beaux-Arts. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for sixty-five years, receiving a third class medal in 1844, two second class medals in 1851 and a Medal of Honor in 1877. In 1900 he received a grand prize at the Exposition Universelle; in the same year he was created a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, having been Officer in 1878 and Commander in 1896.

Frémiet died in Paris, France, on 10 September, 1910.

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