Born in Geneva, Pradier was the son of a Protestant family from Toulouse. He left for Paris in 1807 to work with his elder brother, Charles-Simon Pradier, an engraver, and also attended the École des Beaux-Artsbeginning in 1808. He won a Prix de Rome that enabled him to study in Rome from 1814 to 1818 at the Villa Médicts. Pradier made his debut at the Salon in 1819 and quickly acquired a reputation as a competent artist. He studied under Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in Paris. In 1827 he became a member of the Académie des beaux-arts and a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts Unlike many of his contemporaries, Pradier oversaw the finish of his sculptures himself. He was a friend of the Romantic poetsAlfred de Musset, Victor Hugo, Théophile Gautier, and the young Gustave Flaubert, and his atelier was a center, presided over by his beautiful mistress, Juliette Drouet, who became Hugo's mistress in 1833. After the liaison with Drouet ended, he married Louise d'Arcet, daughter of the French chemist Jean-Pierre-Joseph d'Arcet, in 1833 but they would separate in 1845, after Pradier had become aware of her infidelities. They had three children: Charlotte, John, and Thérèse. Due to her numerous lovers and her complicated financial lfe, Louise Pradier was among the inspirations for Flaubert when he wrote Madame Bovary. Removing Her Veils The cool neoclassicalsurface finish of Pradier's sculptures is charged with an eroticism that their mythological themes can barely disguise. At the Salon of 1834, Pradier's created a scandalous sensation. Some claimed to recognize the features of the sculptor and his mistress, Juliette Drouet. When the prudish government of Louis-Philippe refused to purchase it, Count Anatole Demidoff bought it and took it to his palazzo in Florence.. Other famous sculptures by Pradier are the figures of Fame in the spandrels of the Arc de Triomphe, decorative figures at the Madeleine, and his twelve Victories'' inside the dome of the Invalides, all in Paris. For his native Geneva he completed the statue of the Genevan Jean-Jacques Rousseau erected in 1838 on the tiny Île Rousseau, where Lac Léman empties to form the Rhône. Aside from large-scale sculptures Pradier collaborated with François-Désiré Froment-Meurice, designing jewelry in a 'Renaissance-Romantic' style. He is buried in the Père-Lachaise cemetery. Much of the contents of his studio were bought up after his death by the city museum of Geneva.
Influence
Pradier's importance as an artist in his day is demonstrated by the fact that his portrait is included in François Joseph Heim's paintingCharles X Distributing Prizes to Artists as the Salon of 1824, now in the Louvre Museum, Paris. Pradier has been largely forgotten in modern times. In 1846 Gustave Flaubert said of him, however: An exhibition, Statues de chair: sculptures de James Pradier at Geneva's Musée d'Art et d'Histoire and Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, roused some interest in Pradier's career and aesthetic. Pradier's students included:
