This groundbreaking publication is the first major study of the French Neoclassical sculptor Augustin Pajou (1730-1809) in almost a century, and the only one in English. It accompanies a major exhibition that opened in October 1997 at the Musee du Louvre, Paris, and arrives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in February 1998.

Pajou is little known outside his native land, but his work merits the same attention as that of his painter contemporaries Fragonard and David. Here Pajou's sculpture is discussed and illustrated in depth, and a detailed picture is provided of the artistic, courtly, and aristocratic milieu in which he was active.

This fresh examination of the 18th-century French intellectual world concentrates on the beginnings of Neoclassicism and explores the philosophical and scientific underpinnings of the Enlightenment. It will appeal not only to art historians but also to those interested in social and cultural history.