Victor Sappey

The French sculptor Victor Sappey was born in Grenoble in Isère on 11 February 1801 and died on 23 March 1856. He was also known as Pierre-Victor Sappey. His father was a stonemason.

Sappey worked in the workshop of Rogge in Paris in 1824. He lived for two years in Egypt with his friend Jean Achard, a famous painter from Dauphiné, and a group of St. Simonians. He was professor then director of the École des Beaux-Arts de Grenoble.

He was also one of the first sculptors to use cement as a sculptural material, with for example the statue of "Génie des Alpes" in Uriage-les-Bains, Isère. This was destroyed, but the model is still kept at the Musée dauphinois.

He was a friend of Théodore Ravanat and Henri Fantin-Latour, and was close to all members of the École dauphinoise that he attended in Proveysieux. He was the father-in-law of the Grenoble sculptor Aimé Charles Irvoy (1824–1898).

This work In terra cotta was executed in 1833 and is held by the musée de Grenoble, who purchased it in 1856. The Drac is a major French river in the region.

This fountain is in Grenoble and is also known as the "Château d'eau" or "Fontaine des dauphins".

The fountain was erected as a tribute to the Marquis de Lavalette who was a mayor of Grenoble and created many public fountains in the city. Nadon was the sculptor of the complete fountain with Sappey creating the four winged angels riding dauphins. See photograph.

Over many years Grenoble had suffered from severe flooding (see Grenoble flood 1859).

This fountain, completed in 1843, is located near the Saint-Laurent bridge in Grenoble. In Sappey's composition the lion symbolizes the city of Grenoble defeating the Isère river which is represented by a snake. Sappey was inspired by the violent encounter of the two rivers, the Drac and Isère, which often burst their banks causing flooding and devastation in the Grenoble area. The lion is carved from stone whilst the snake is in bronze.

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