He was admitted to the Académie in Paris, and grew to become one of France’s leading rococo sculptors. Falconet’s mischievous Menacing Cupid, which he made for Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of the French king, is a compelling interpretation of the god of love – in fact this work became an icon of this 18th-century style. In 1757, the sculptor was appointed director of the sculpture studio at the porcelain factory in Sèvres, where he was responsible for production of the small, unglazed porcelain figures that were so popular at the time. Falconet spent the last years of his career in Saint Petersburg, as court sculptor to Catherine the Great, and in The Hague, where he worked on a theoretical treatise on sculpture.
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