François Coudray

Saint Sebastian (1712) by Coudray in the Louvre

François Coudray (* 1678 in Villecerf, now Messon ; † 29. April 1727 in Dresden ) was a in Saxony active French sculptor .

Career

Coudray was a student of Antoine Coysevox and was accepted at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1712 . The Saxon Elector and Polish King Augustus the Strong brought him to the Saxon capital together with Jean Joseph Vinache in 1714 . As early as 1715, Coudray was appointed a Saxon court sculptor and received civil rights for the city of Dresden. He decorated the huge gardens of the regent in Großsedlitz and Pillnitz with his figures. At times he worked on the kennel figures in Balthasar Permoser's workshop . There were often differences of opinion among the masters, so that Coudray finally worked independently in Dresden. He is the father of the sculptor Pierre Coudray (1713–1770) and the great-grandfather of the architect Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray (1775–1875).

He died in Dresden in 1727 and was buried in the Old Catholic Cemetery. The grave has not been preserved.

Fountain bowl with goblet for a fountain in the park of the Gönnsdorf manor house near Dresden
1714: Marble bust of Prince Elector Friedrich August , Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
1718–1721: Participation in the Dresden Zwinger
Putti fountain in Dresden-Friedrichstadt
1720: two sphinxes and several sandstone statues in the Großsedlitz baroque garden
1725: two sphinxes on the outside staircase of the Pillnitz gondola port
Fountain in the Brühl Garden, putti with dolphin in shell and rock work in baroque tradition

Paul Schumann: Dresden and its art places. Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen 2011, ISBN 3867416737 , p. 150
Emmanuel Bénézit : Dictionnaire des peintres sculpteurs dessinateurs et graveurs . Volume 4, Gründ, 1999, p. 7

^ Gertraude Stahl-Heimann: Dresden cemeteries and their special features . Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, Heidelberg 1996, p. 53.