Christopher-Gabriel Allegrain (1710-1795)

Allegrain was a pupil of Martin, an ornamental sculptor, and by his first marriage, in 1733, became brother-in-law to Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. He was accepted by the Acadmie Royale in 1748 and was a full member in 1751 on presentation of the statuette Narcissus Gazing at his Reflection in the Water. His earlier career was dominated by the relationship with Pigalle, with whom he seems to have collaborated, probably in a subordinate capacity, on monuments including the mausoleum of the Marchal de Saxe and the monument to Louis XV for the Place Royale, Reims.

Other works were executed to the designs of others, such as the stone female statue, the Butter-churner, commissioned in 1753 by Mme de Pompadour for her dairy at the Chateau of Crecy and based on a drawing by Franois Boucher. His own talents and limitations in the field of portrait sculpture and funerary art can be appreciated in the monument to Charles-Joseph de Pollinchove in the church of St Pierre, Douai.



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