CHARLES CROZATIER

Born of poor parents in 1795, Charles Crozatier's family moved to Aiguihe where he was raised before studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the studio of Pierre Cartellier. He lived in Italy where he studied the casting techniques of the Renaissance sculptors. Although he was known as a sculptor, his work as a founder won him many commissions. The Puy museum has a number of works sculpted by him including Henri IV as a child and his Prometheus Bound is in the Bayonne museum.

Crozatier was also responsible for the equestrian statue of Louis XIV, originally sculpted by Pierre Cartellier and cast by Crozatier in 1829, which was only recently re-installed in the courtyard at Versailles.