Details of Sculptor

Surname

Breton

Alternative Surname

First Name

Luc-François

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1731

Flourished

Year of Death

1800

Biographical Details

Born at Besançon in 1731, he was apprenticed to Julien Chambert, a local woodcarver, and then entered the studio of the sculptor Claude-François Attiret at Dôle. In 1754, he set out for Italy to complete his studies. In 1758 he won first prize for sculpture at the Accademia di San Luca with a terracotta relief of Metellus rescuing Palladium from the temple of Vesta. This work established his reputation and he decided to settle in Rome, where he stayed for several years, working mainly for French patrons. In 1771 he returned to Berançon, where he remained until his death.
Though he never came to England, Breton worked for Robert Adam, modelling the relief for his monument to Lieutenant-Colonel Townshend in Westminster Abbey (1). Adam’s design for the Townshend monument consisted of two caryatid figures supporting a sarcophagus, with a relief depicting Townshend’s death at the battle of Ticonderoga on the front and a trophy of arms above. In the spring of 1760 the architect sent Breton a drawing of the proposed relief, instructing him to make a full-scale model in terracotta and giving him the liberty to make changes to the design should he see fit. A few months later James Adam wrote to Robert from Venice to say that he had seen a drawing of Breton’s finished relief: ‘he has altered the whole design, has crowded it with horses and figures so that I was a good deal surprised to see your license so abused, as also to see at the foot of the drawing Breton invt’ (13 August 1760, cited by Fleming 1962 (2), 166-8). The reasons for Breton’s alterations and embellishments became clear when James went to Rome early in 1761. On 7 March he reported to Robert that he had been ‘to see Breton’s bas-relief. The first is really magnificent and I imagine might cost as much to execute as half the price of the whole monument. From the resemblance of the subject the English here explained it to Breton to be for General Wolfe and consequently he thought he could not make it too Magnificent’. His letter continued, ‘He has since done a sketch of another, as much underacted as the other was overacted, and when I told him the corrections and asked him when he could finish it he told me he could not begin for some time, so that I must yet apply to another and am in hopes you will be perfectly happy with the execution of it’ (ibid, 168). Unfortunately James did not specify what corrections he suggested for Breton’s second sketch model, neither is it clear whether another modeller was brought in, but it seems probable that Breton completed the work in the next two months. It had been fired and dispatched from Leghorn by 3 July. The monument was erected in Westminster Abbey by Benjamin and Thomas Carter II in November 1761 and the marble version of the relief is prominently signed by John Eckstein I.
Literary References: Fleming 1962 (2), 163-171; Stainton 1983, 12, 18