Benoît Bénédict Rougelet

Benoît Rougelet, known as Bénédict Rougelet, was a French sculptor born in Tournus on 17 September 1834, and died in Ivry-sur-Seine on 17 July 1894.
He was the son of Pierre Rougelet, a currier, and trained in a drawing workshop for young stonecutters opened by Father Philibert Garnier, a priest in Tournus, who was the brother of Alceste de Chapuys-Montlaville, a senator during the Second Empire. Thanks to the support of this senator, he obtained a grant of 500 francs from the General Council to study in Lyon, then in Paris.
In 1862, he was in Lyon where he worked under the direction of Guillaume Bonnet. He also attended the classes of Joseph-Hugues Fabisch, whom he left abruptly by throwing “a stool at the teacher’s head”. Having an undisciplined character, he often changed his place of residence.
In 1866, he was in Paris in Francisque Duret’s studio at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the competition for a monument to Greuze in Tournus, inaugurated in 1868. He began exhibiting at the Salon in 1876 and received several public commissions. He is particularly known for his groups of putti, as well as for his sensual female nudes.