The son of a silversmith and furniture maker, Cavelier was born in Paris.
He was a student of the sculptors David d'Angers and the painter Paul Delaroche, Cavelier won the Prix de Rome in 1842 with a plaster statue of Diomedes Entering the Palladium.
The young sculptor lived at the Villa Medici from 1843–47.
Appointed in 1864 Professor at the École des beaux-arts, he trained many students there, including René Rozet,[1] Édouard Lantéri, Hippolyte Lefèbvre, Louis-Ernest Barrias, Eugène Guillaume, Fernand Hamar, the British Alfred Gilbert and the American George Grey Barnard, as well as conducting his own prolific career as a sculptor.
Media related to Jules Cavelier at Wikimedia Commons