Jean Turcan

In 1871 he resumed under Jules Cavelier and went on to win second prize in the 1876 Prix de Rome for his Jason carrying off the golden fleece.

A bronze version (destroyed in World War II) was placed in the park at Aix-les-Bains and seen there by Paul Verlaine, who wrote a homoerotic poem about it in 1889.

On this occasion it received a medal of honour, while the Revue des Deux Mondes devoted to it several pages of enthusiastic description, pointing out its dynamic yet compassionate qualities.

[5] But despite success and the award of the Legion of Honour in 1888, financial difficulties forced Turcan to work for a period in the studio of Auguste Rodin, where he was responsible for carving a large-scale version of the sculptor's The Kiss.

[6] Eventually the victim of a lingering ataxia malady, he died shortly before the money raised by fellow artists to support him could be delivered.