Bust of Louis Fontanes

In 1777, following the death of his parents Louis Fontanes moved to Paris where he was introduced to important literary figures. He befriended the dramatist Jean-François Ducis and started to work on his writings. His first poems, some of which were inspired by English works, appeared in the Almanach des Muses; Le Cri de mon coeur, describing his own sad childhood, in 1778; and La Foret de Navarre in 1780. Fontanes enthusiastically supported the French Revolution but was abhorred by the atrocities of the Terror that ensued. He courageously protested against Collot d’Herbois’s punishment of those involved in the revolt of Lyon. Pierre Julien trained as a sculptor under G. Samuel and Antoine Michel Perrache in Lyon. In 1765 he won the Grand Prix de Rome for his low relief sculpture Albinus Offering His Chariot to the Vestals.