Louis Claude Vassé

1716–1772, Paris

The sculptor, Louis Claude Vassé, came from a family of artists stretching back several generations. Trained initially by his father, François Antoine V (1681 Toulon – 1736 Paris), he was subsequently apprenticed to none other than Edmé Bouchardon. His career developed successfully along traditional lines. Louis Claude won the Academy’s coveted Grand Prix in 1739 and continued his training as a pensionnaire at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1740-45. A full member of the Paris Academy from 1751, Vassé was appointed a professor there in 1761. Sculp­tures from different stages of his creative development are kept at the Louvre in Paris.