Jacques Desjardins

))Jacques Desjardins, born Jacobus van den Bogaert on 4 February 1671 in Breda in the Dutch Republic, was a sculptor and bronze founder of Dutch origin who made his career in France. The son of merchant Jean van den Bogaert and Catherine Bénard, he was the nephew of the prominent sculptor Martin Desjardins (Martin van den Bogaert). Drawn to Paris by his uncle’s established reputation at the French court, he continued the family atelier after Martin’s death in 1694 and rose to become fondeur du roi.)

Working in the grand Baroque tradition of Louis XIV’s royal workshops, Desjardins specialized in decorative bronzes, lead garden sculpture, and ornamental metalwork. He produced bronze fittings for the Royal Chapel at Versailles, including ornaments for the high altar, tribune balusters, and the lock and key of the great door after a model by Grattepin (1710). Other royal commissions included lead vases and groups of young Tritons carrying shells at Marly, the repair of the statue *L’Aurore descendant de son char* (1701–1702), bronzes for the Coronelli globes (1706), and works at Meudon and the Château de Poppelsdorf for Joseph-Clément of Bavaria. He also supplied pieces for the Abbey of Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, and the Hôtel des Invalides.)

A bronze of a reclining woman once belonged to the collector Blondel de Gagny. The Art Institute of Chicago holds a photogravure *Village Corners* (after Hubert), the sole work by Desjardins in the collection, dated to his lifetime and reflecting his activity as a designer as well as a sculptor. Death dates in sources range from circa 1716 or 1721 to 7 April 1737 at Grand Montreuil near Versailles. He married Marie Brocard in 1700; their son François became a sculptor to the king.

Desjardins’s workshop also supplied plaster models later used for an equestrian monument of Charles XII of Sweden. His career illustrates the seamless integration of a Dutch-trained artist into the French royal sculptural tradition, leaving a lasting imprint on the decorative programs of Versailles and related palaces.