Sculptor, part of a French family of artists. Adrien Le Pautre was a master joiner. Of his three notable sons Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682) was a designer and printmaker, whose published works, sold singly or in sets, were an important conduit for disseminating French architectural taste throughout Europe in the 17th century. Another son, also called Jean Le Pautre, was active as a mason, but perhaps the most important member of the family was Antoine Le Pautre (1621-1679), an architect whose Baroque style found favour among members of the aristocracy and with King Louis XIV. Pierre I Le Pautre (c. 1648-1716), Pierre II Le Pautre (1659-1744), a sculptor and Jacques Le Pautre (c. 1653-1684), an engraver, were sons of Jean, while Antoine's sons included another Jean Le Pautre (1648-1735), a sculptor, and Claude Le Pautre (b 1649), an architect. Pierre Le Pautre II won the Prix de Rome in 1683, and the following year he went to the Académie de France in Rome, where he was a talented and much praised student. Among his Roman works were two copies after the Antique executed for Louis XIV, the marble groups Faun with a Kid (1685-87; Paris, Louvre) and Meleager (1687-92; on loan to the Hôtel Matignon, Paris). He also executed two original works, the marble groups Paetus and Arria (1691-5; Paris, Louvre), from a model by Jean Théodon and started by him, and Aeneas Carrying his Father Anchises (1696-1718; Paris, Louvre), from a model by François Girardon. Both demonstrate his early mastery of complex Baroque compositional effects, and the popularity of the latter group is attested by numerous reductions in terracotta and bronze recorded in 18th- and 19th-century sales. He returned to Paris in 1701 and, although invited to become a member of the Académie Royale, preferred instead to join the Académie de St Luc, of which he eventually became a Recteur for life. He was much employed in royal service. //