Étienne Le Hongre
Étienne Le Hongre (7 May 1628 – 28 April 1690) was a French sculptor, part of the team that worked for the Bâtiments du Roi at Versailles. Le Hongre was one of the first generation of sculptors formed by the precepts of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. At the Bain des Nymphes (1678–80) he was one of the sculptors providing lead bas-reliefs for the fountain setting that featured the work of François Girardon. Le Hongre provided other bronze figures for the Parterre d'Eau (illustration, right). Early life Le Hongre was born in Paris, the son of a menuisier, a carver of furniture and boiseries. He trained in the atelier of Jacques Sarrazin along with Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy and Pierre Le Gros the Elder, all of whom later worked at Versailles. He was accepted (agréé) at the Académie in June 1653 and went to Rome, provided by the king with a purse of 500 livres; he returned to Paris in 1659. He was accepted as a member of the Académie in April 1667 and taught in the Academy schools as an assistant professor (1670), full professor (1676) and assistant rector (1686), which afforded him the lodgings in