Corneille Van Clève

Clève was born in Paris in 1646 to a family of Flemish goldsmiths and baptized on 10 June that year. His grandfather, a merchant goldsmith, immigrated to Paris from Flanders and was naturalized by King Henry IV in 1606.[1] Cleve studied under French sculptor François Anguier and received the Prix de Rome scholarship in 1671.[2]

After spending several years there at the French Academy in Rome, as well as three years in Venice, Clève returned to France in 1678.[3] On 26 April 1681, he was formally accepted to the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture upon submission of a marble statue of the cyclops Polyphemus.[4] Clève would be director of the Académie from 1711 to 1714.[5] Clève enjoyed the patronage of both King Louis XIV and Louis XV, earning the King's pension until his death and sculpting numerous statues for the Palace at Versailles.[1]

Clève married Marie-Antoinette De Meaux de Vallicre, half-sister of the famous goldsmith Nicolas de Launay, on 31 January 1682. She died in May 1683, just a few days after giving birth to their only son, Josse. He went on to become a sculptor, working in his father's workshop and earning several awards from the Académie, but would die on 4 June 1711.[1]

Clève died during the night of 30-31 December 1732 following a long bout of illness that begun in April 1730.[1]

• Polyphemus (1680-81) – The Louvre, Paris
• Work at Versailles Palace (1681-82) – Worked on the apartment of the Prince de Conti on the ground floor of the South Wing.
• Cleopatra or Sleeping Ariadne (1684-86) – Gardens of Versailles, Versailles
• Lion crushing a Wolf (1685-87) – Gardens of Versailles, Versailles
• Mercury (1685-87) – Gardens of Versailles, Versailles
• Cleopatra (1665-1700) – The Louvre, Paris
• Leda and the Swan (1685-1700) – The Louvre, Paris
• The Rivers Loire and Loiret (1699-1707) – The Louvre, Paris
• Psyche and Cupid (1700-1710) – National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
• Venus and Cupid (1700-1710) – National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
• Bacchus and Ariadne (1704 or before) – Exhibited at the Salon of 1704; Legion of Honor, San Francisco
• Sanctuary and High Altar (1709-10) – Chapel of Versailles, Versailles

• Works by Corneille Van Clève
• 
  Polyphemus (1681)
• 
  The Rivers Loire and Loiret (1699-1707)
• 
  Psyche and Cupid (1700-1710)
• 
  Venus and Cupid (1700-1710)

References

1. Souchal, François (1987). French Sculptors of the 17th and 18th centuries: The Reign of Louis XIV. Vol. III, M to Z. Translated by Hill, Elsie; Hill, George. Bruno Cassirer Publishers. pp. 367–368. ISBN 0-85181-053-5.
2. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Vol. 3, Bulow–Cossin. Paris: Éditions Gründ. 2006. p. 1123.
3. Levey, Michael (1972). Painting and sculpture in France 1700-1789. Yale University Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-300-05344-4.
4. "Polyphème assis sur son rocher". collections.louvre.fr (in French). 13 October 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
5. Williams, Hannah (2016). Académie Royale: A History in Portraits. Routledge. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-4094-5742-8.

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