French sculptor. He was the son of a locksmith and studied at the Ecole Gratuite de Dessin, Paris, and then in the studio of Charles-Antoine Bridan and at the Acadmie Royale. He failed to win the Prix de Rome and began to earn his living modelling decorative motifs for bronze founders. He also worked as an assistant to Joseph Deschamps on decorative sculpture for Queen Marie-Antoinette at the chteaux of Trianon and Saint-Cloud, near Versailles, taking over from Deschamps on his death.
During the French Revolution he was one of a number of sculptors who collaborated on Antoine Quatremère de Quincy’s scheme to turn the church of Ste Geneviève, Paris, into a mausoleum, the Panthon, to which he contributed a stone relief representing Force and Prudence (1792-93; destroyed). He exhibited a terracotta statuette of Friendship (private collection) in the 1796 Salon and in 1801 achieved his first major success when he exhibited the plaster version (untraced) of his statue of Modesty, based on the antique Capitoline Venus (Rome, Museo Capitolino); the marble version (exh. 1808 Salon; Amsterdam, Historisch Museum), executed for Empress Josphine, demonstrates not only his commitment to the prevalent Neo-classical style but his distinctive personal grace of composition and delicacy of execution.
After the death of the Empress Josphine, Cartellier executed, together with the architect Louis Berthault, her
white marble tomb.
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