Jean Dampt

Who was Jean Dampt?

Jean Baptiste Auguste Dampt was a French sculptor, medalist, and jeweler.

Born in Venarey-les-Laumes as the son of a cabinetmaker, Dampt studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, then in 1874 under the leadership of François Jouffroy and Paul Dubois at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris . He exhibited for the first time at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français in 1876. In 1877 he took the deuxième Prix de Rome for sculpture at the Ecole. He completed his military service, then organized an Exhibition of the Society of Friends of the Gold Coast to promote art in its region.

Dampt's work can be described as Symbolist; at the Musée d'Orsay he is classified as Art Nouveau. Some of Dampt's sculptures are exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Dijon.

In 1919 Dampt was appointed to chair #7 of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Dampt's students include the Americans Frederick Ruckstull, Charles Grafly, and Cyrus Edwin Dallin, and the Swiss Jean Dunand. The animalier François Pompon was an assistant.