page_title: Jean-François Legendre-Héral
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Jean-François Legendre-Héral / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: This statue of French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) had been ordered to sculptor Jean-François Legendre-Héral in the early 1840s by the French Ministry of the Interior in order to adorn the galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie, a building of the French National Museum of Natural History, at the Jardin des plantes in Paris. At the time, when the statue was being ordered, the building had been recently inaugurated (in 1837) and was intended to receive the Museum of Natural History library, and also the botany, mineralogy and geology collections. Completed in 1842, this Legendre-Héral's statue was first exhibited at the Salon of the same year, at the Louvre, and then was moved to the entrance of the (at the time) Gallery of Botany, under the galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie left pediment. The statue remained on site (shown here photographed in 2009) until 2013 when it was moved to its current location, at the entrance of the nowadays Gallery of Botany (inaugurated 1935). In the present day, visitors enter the Gallery of Botany through the pathway left between this Jussieu's statue and another statue which depicts botanist Michel Adanson (1727-1806). Français&#160;: Cette statue du botaniste français Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) est une commande que le Ministère français de l'Intérieur avait adressé à l'intention du sculpteur Jean-François Legendre-Héral au début des années 1840 dans le but d'orner la galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie, un bâtiment appartenant au Muséum national d'histoire naturelle et situé au Jardin des plantes, à Paris. À l'époque de la commande de la statue, le bâtiment venait d'être inauguré (en 1837) et était destiné à recevoir la bibliothèque du Muséum ainsi que les collections du Muséum portant sur la botanique, la minéralogie et la géologie. Terminée en 1842, la statue fut d'abord exposée au Salon de peinture et de sculpture de la même année, au Louvre, et ensuite, toujours dans la même année, placée à l'entrée de la galerie de Botanique de l'époque, dans l'aile gauche de la galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie. Cette photographie de 2009 montre la statue telle qu'elle était à ce même emplacement depuis 1842. En 2013 elle a été déplacée à l'entrée de l'actuelle galerie de Botanique, elle inaugurée en 1935. De nos jours, les visiteurs pénètrent à l'intérieur de l'actuelle galerie de Botanique du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle en passant entre les deux statues de deux célèbres botanistes français&#160;: cette même statue représentant Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu et une autre statue représentant Michel Adanson (1727-1806).
context_page_description: Jean-François Legendre-Héral was a French classical sculptor.
context_section_description: Jean-Francois Legendre-Heral was born on 21 January 1796 in Montpellier. His father was a postal worker. After his father's death, his mother married a musician, who introduced him to the arts. He was soon allowed to enroll in the École nationale des beaux-arts de Lyon, where he studied with Joseph Chinard and Joseph Charles Marin. In 1817, he obtained a grant from the city for a study trip to Rome. It was at this time that he added his step-father's name to his own to become Legendre-Héral. During his stay there, his fellow sculptor James Pradier accused him of casting his sculptures from life; an accusation that would later become the source of rumours in Lyon and Paris, apparently spread by François Joseph Bosio. In 1819, he was named to a professorship at the École, where Jean-Marie Bonnassieux and Hippolyte Flandrin were among his first students.
  In 1825, he went to Paris with a deputation from Hérault to work on implementing an equestrian statue of Louis XIV for his hometown of Montpellier. He took this opportunity to request an extended leave from the École. Three years later, he returned to Lyon.
  He executed several major commissions for the City of Lyon. In 1837, he was named a Chevalier in the Legion d'Honneur. The following year, he resigned from his teaching position and moved to Paris, where he was awarded major government contracts for the Jardin des Plantes, Versailles and several churches. In his last years, he suffered from a disease of the spinal cord, ceased working, and retired to Marcilly.
  His son, Charles, who served as a model for some of his father's best-known statues, married an American and emigrated to the United States in 1854, where he became a Union General during the Civil War, an ambassador to China and an advisor to the governments of Japan and Korea.
caption: Statue of Antoine Laurent de Jussieu at the Jardin des Plantes
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