died, with much assiduity, the finest antique statues.Upon his return to France, he was employed with the first artists of his time, to embellish the royal mansions. Le Brun dying in 1690, Girardon was nominated by the king, inspector general of the works of sculpture. In 1698, he lost his wife, to whose memory he erected a monument in the church St. Landry, which was executed after his design, by his disciples Lorrain and Nourisson. He died at Paris, in 1715, at the age of eighty-eight.

Girardon was one of the most laborious of the French sculptors. His works, which are in general highly finished, are distinguished for accuracy of design and good taste. Besides the Tomb of the Cardinal de Richelieu, Paris still possesses the fine equestrian statue of Louis the Fourteenth, in the place Vendôme. It is about twenty feet high, and was wrought in bronze, at a single cast, by J. Balthazar Kneller, a very ingenious artist. At Versailles, there are the "Bath of Apollo," composed of ten figures; and a great number of other esteemed productions. Girardon furnished the models of the greater part of the statues that decorate the "Hôtel des Invalides."

JEAN DE LA FONTAINE

STATUE IN MARBLE. JULIEN.

one.

JEAN DE LA FONTAINE was born at Chateau-Thierry, in the year 1621. He arrived at the age of twenty-two without being conscious of his talents. About that period, the perusal of an ode, by Malherbe, made him feel that he was likewise a poet. Mild, simple in his pleasures, diffident in society, he appeared little calculated for the married state: yet one of his friends induced him to marry a young person, no less distinguished for caprice than her figure. The union was by no means an happy Desire of independence, and the attractions which a residence in the capital appeared to possess, made him separate himself from his wife. He rarely visited his native country, except occasionally to sell some portion of his patrimony. The most distinguished characters of the court and the city were desirous of his acquaintance. His days, therefore, passed in the circle of the muses and of friendship, without jealousy, and perhaps without his being sensible of his great superiority over the major part of his cotemporaries. His works are too generally known to require any comment. His fables, which have conferred immortality upon his name, have placed him far above all who had treated that species of poetry before his time, and will render it a fruitless attempt in any future fabulist to attain his excellence. He died at Paris, in 1695, at the age of seventy-four, leaving behind him the reputation of one of the most exalted geniusses of France.

It being the intention of the old government to erect statues to the memory of illustrious men, M. Julien, then professor of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and at present member of the National Institute, was made choice of to execute that of La Fontaine. This artist has represented him seated, and composing one of his fables. To the merit of a perfect resemblance, from the portraits that exist of this celebrated poet, this figure combines the advantage of delineating, with great fidelity, the character of La Fontaine. Beside him is a volume of his works. On the plinth several basso relievos are observable, the subjects of which are taken from his fables.