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Antoine Bourdelle (October 30, 1861 – October 1, 1929), originally Émile Antoine Bourdelle, was a French sculptor and teacher.
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Antoine Bourdelle (pronounceed an-twahn boor-dell) was born at Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne. He left school at the age of 13 to work as a wood carver in his father's cabinet making shop. He learned drawing with the founder of the Ingres Museum in Montauban, then sculpture at the art school in Toulouse. At the age of 24 he won a scholarship to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In 1888 he did his first sculptures of Beethoven, producing authoritative work with an emphasis on order, the spirit of geometry, construction and invention. He became one of the pioneers of 20th century monumental sculpture. Auguste Rodin became a great admirer of his work and in 1893 Antoine Bourdelle joined Rodin as his assistant where he soon became a popular teacher, both there and at his own studio where many future prominent artists attended his classes, so that his influence on sculpture was considerable.
In Paris one of Bourdelle's most visible works is the decorative series of friezes executed for the exterior of Auguste Perret's Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1913).
During his last years, Bourdelle received several commissions for monuments. He was a founder and vice-president of the Paris Salon des Tuileries, and in 1924 became a commander of the Legion of Honor. Antoine Bourdelle died at Le Vésinet, near Paris, on October 1, 1929 and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France.
Today the Musée Bourdelle in Paris sits amidst brick houses at 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle, a small street between the Gare Montparnasse and the offices of the famous French newspaper Le Monde. The museum consists of Bourdelle's house, studio and garden where he worked from 1884 to 1929. His work is also exhibited in public collections including the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art (Japan), the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Courtauld Institute of Art (London), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna (Rome), Harvard University Art Museums, the Hermitage Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington D.C.), the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas), Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, Netherlands), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires), the National Galleries of Scotland, the National Gallery of Australia, the Ingres museum in Toulouse, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium.
Artists who studied with Antoine Bourdelle included:
For a first hand account of Bourdelle's teaching style see Arnold Ronnebeck's article from 1925, published in The Arts 8, no.4 titled "Bourdelle Speaks to His Puplis: From a Paris Diary."
 'La Grande Penelope', bronze sculpture by Antoine Bourdelle, 1912, Honolulu Academy of Arts |
 Antoine Bourdelle's ‘La Libert'e’ in front of Daido Life Insurance Company headquarters in Osaka, Osaka prefecture, Japan |
 Émile-Antoine Bourdelle, The sculptress at work, 1906, bronze, Stanford Museum, Stanford University, California |
 Dominique Ingres by Antoine Bourdelle |
 ’Le Jour et la Nuit’, marble sculpture by Antoine Bourdelle, 1903 |
 Gilt bronze portrait of Gustave Eiffel by Antoine Bourdelle beneath the Eiffel Tower |
 Monument to General Carlos M. de Alvear by Antoine Bourdelle, Plaza Francia, Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
 Bronze portrait of the art critic Mécislas Goldberg by Antoine Bourdelle |
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