Louis Royer was a sculptor and a painter. After he attended the art academy in his hometown The Hague, Royer travelled to Paris where he stayed for one year. In 1820 he settled in Amsterdam and participated in the competition for the Prix de Rome, which he won in 1823. He was the first sculptor to win the prize that was started by King Willem I in 1817.
Royer lived in Rome for four years, from 1823 until 1828. It’s not known exactly where, but it must have been near the Spanish Steps; close to the studios of the sculptors Canova, Thorwaldsen and Kessels.
While in Rome, Royers had financial difficulties due to problems with the commission of the Prix de Rome and because his patron, the Amsterdam stockbroker A.B. Roothaan, went bankrupt. Royer was however quite productive, and only found time to travel once, to Napels. Probably the first sculpture he made in Rome was a portrait of his friend, the painter Cornelis Kruseman. His most admired sculpture was a portrait of pope Leo XII, whom he portrayed from life.
Louis Royer, appointed as royal sculptor and director of the Royal Academy in Amsterdam, was the most important sculptor working in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century. (NT)