Coustou, William

, born at Paris in 1716, the nephew of Nicholas, was son of the last- mentioned, and succeeded to his talents, which he improved at Rome. On his return to France, where previous to his departure for Italy he had carried off the prize for sculpture at the age of nineteen, he was employed repeatedly by many persons of rank. He was engaged to make the mausoleum of the dauphin, father to Louis XVI. and his illustrious consort: a monument which embellishes the cathedral of Sens. It was just finished when its author died in July 1777, in the 6 1st year of his age. His coffin was decorated with the ribbon of St. Michael, which the king had bestowed on him not long before. His other performances are: the apotheosis of St. Francis Xavier, which he executed in marble for the Jesuits of Bourdeaux; an Apollo placed at Bellevue; Venus and Mars, which the king or' Prussia bought as an ornament to his gallery at Berlin, &c. His Venus is particularly conspicuous for the grace, the precision, and the majesty of its form. ²