# Monument to the Dauphin

[View the canonical artwork record](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/coustou-guillaume-ii-re1184373bc8d39/monument-to-the-dauphin-rc61e8094c957c7>)

## Artwork

- Artist: [COUSTOU, Guillaume II](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/coustou-guillaume-ii-re1184373bc8d39>)
- Date: 1751-1800
- Technique: Marble

## Commentary

The monument of the Daphin \(the son of Louis XV\) was commissioned from Coustou by Louis XVI, the Dauphin&#39;s son. The sculptor never lived to see the monument set up at Sens. When the Salon opened in 1777 he was dead; the completed monument, finished except for gilding of its bronzes, was available for public inspection in his studio. The monument&#39;s novelty is in the absence of any image of the deceased. It is conceived as a catafalque and, in the end, consists entirely of mourning allegorical figures grouped about the two urns. It is the first large-scale neo-classical tomb to be built in France.

## Related artworks

- [Monument to the Dauphin](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/coustou-guillaume-ii-re1184373bc8d39/monument-to-the-dauphin-r4bd7f3043ee1f9>)
- [Vulcan](<https://beta.wga.hu/artists/coustou-guillaume-ii-re1184373bc8d39/vulcan-r6668d8402c1b68>)

## Attribution

[Web Gallery of Art](<https://beta.wga.hu/pages/about>)
