TOUSSAINT, François Christophe Armand

French sculptor. He studied under David d'Angers at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris following his admission in 1827 at the age of 21. A skilled sculptor, he received the Grand Prix de RomeGLOSSARYA scholarship, founded concurrently with the French Academy in Rome (1666), that enabled prize-winning students at the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris to spend a period (usually 4 years) in Rome at the state's expense. Prizes for architecture began to be awarded regularly in 1723, and prizes for engravers and musicians were added in the 19th century. The prizes were meant to perpetuate the academic tradition and during the 18th and 19th centuries winning the award was the traditional stepping stone to the highest honours for painters and sculptors. Many distinguished artists (as well as many nonentities) were Prix de Rome winners, notably David, Fragonard, and Ingres among painters and Clodion, Girardon, and Houdon among sculptors. The prizes are still awarded and the system has been adopted by other countries. four years later with a figure titled Capanée foudroyé sous les murs de Thebes. He exhibited at the SalonGLOSSARYIn the French language of the 18th and 19th centuries it designated an actual exhibition space, as well as the academic art exhibitions staged in the Salon d'Apollon of the Louvre since 1667. From 1737, the exhibitions took place biennially and, after the French Revolution, annually in the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris. Towards the end of the 19th century the official Salon jury was dissolved in order to make way for a committee of state-approved artists, i.e. former Salon members, who created the highly influential Société des Artistes Français. between 1836 and 1850, winning a third-class medal in 1839 for his Jésus Christ environné de petits enfants and a second class in 1847 for his Une esclave indienne portant une torche.

As well as working on his own projects, Toussaint was professor of sculpture at the École des Beaux Arts and carried out several official and church commissions. Around 1850 he was included among those working in Notre Dame de Paris to restore sculptures destroyed during the French Revolution.

He received the Médaille de la Légion d'Honneur in 1852.