The Ivory Sculptor of the Enlightenment In the heart of early 19th-century Paris, a period defined by the intellectual rigor of the Enlightenment and the burgeoning ideals of Neoclassicism, Louis Benjamin Huber Defeuille carved a singular niche within the artistic landscape. While the era was often dominated by the sweeping canvases of history painters, Defeuille turned his gaze toward the intimate and the tactile, finding a profound medium in ivory. His work emerged from a Parisian milieu that was deeply enamored with scientific observation and the pursuit of classical perfection, a time wh…