Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Cavalier, Jean (c.1650/60 - 1698/99), sculptor
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1650-1660-1698/99
History
Probably born in Dieppe, around 1650-1660. Cavalier was a Huguenot who travelled extensively, working as a wax modeller and ivory sculptor, and specialising in portrait medallions. In 1682/3 he went to London, where he stayed until 1686; he then went to Trier, perhaps Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Kassel, and in 1689 to Vienna, Munich and perhaps Dresden. By 1690 he was back in London, where he carved pictures of the King and Queen and was given the passport as the 'King's medallist'. He was then at the Danish Court in 1691/3, and from 1694/5-7 in Stockholm, from whence he and his brother Denis, also a sculptor, journeyed as ambassadors on behalf of Sweden to Russia and Persia, where they both died. Cavalier was the most accomplished ivory-carver working in late Stuart England until the arrival of David Le Marchand around 1700.