Jean-Antoine Houdon

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Houdon, Jean-Antoine (b Versailles, 25 Mar. 1741; d Paris, 15 July 1828). French sculptor. A pupil of Michel-Ange Slodtz, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, he won the Prix de Rome in 1761. During his stay in Rome, 1764–8, he produced two works that made his reputation: a life-size male écorché figure (1767, Schlossmuseum, Gotha), casts of which were widely used in art academies, and the dignified, contemplative St Bruno (1767, S. Maria degli Angeli), a kind of classical riposte to Slodtz's more animated and Baroque statue of the saint in St Peter's. After returning to Paris in 1768, he was successful in the popular mythological idiom, becoming a member of the Academy in 1777 with his Morpheus (Louvre, Paris). His greatest strength, however, was with portraits, in which he showed a brilliant gift for catching lively gesture and expression. By the mid-1780s he was acknowledged as the leading portrait sculptor of Europe and in 1785 he visited America in connection with his statue of George Washington (marble original, 1788, in Virginia State Capitol, Richmond; bronze copy outside the NG, London). His other well-known works include several portraits of Voltaire (e.g. in the Comédie-Française, Paris, and V&A, London). During the French Revolution he narrowly escaped imprisonment and although he found favour again under Napoleon (a terracotta bust of him, 1806, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon), he produced little of importance after the turn of the century. He last exhibited in 1814 and in his final years his mind was impaired following a stroke.

Houdon, Jean-Antoine (1741–1828). French sculptor. A pupil of Michel-Ange Slodtz, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, he won the Prix de Rome in 1761. During his stay in Rome, 1764–8, he produced two works that made his reputation: a male écorché figure (1767, Schlossmuseum, Gotha), casts of which were widely used in art academies, and St Bruno (1767, S. Maria degli Angeli), executed in a direct and unpretentious classical style. After returning to Paris in 1768, he was successful in the popular mythological idiom, becoming a member of the Academy in 1777 with his Morpheus (Louvre, Paris). His greatest strength, however, was with portraits, in which he showed a brilliant gift for catching lively gesture and expression. By the mid-1780s he was acknowledged as the leading portrait sculptor of Europe and in 1785 he visited America in connection with his statue of George Washington (marble original, 1788, in Virginia State Capitol, Richmond; bronze copy outside the NG, London). His other well-known works include several portraits of Voltaire (e.g. in the Comédie-Française, Paris, and V&A, London). During the French Revolution he narrowly escaped imprisonment and although he found favour again under Napoleon (a terracotta bust of him, 1806, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon), he produced little of importance after the turn of the century. He last exhibited in 1814 and in his final years his mind was impaired following a stroke.

Jean-Antoine Houdon , 1741-1828, French neoclassical sculptor. He studied with Michel Ange Slodtz, Lemoyne , and Pigalle , took the Prix de Rome at the age of 20, and spent four years in Italy. Many of his later works reveal his study of classical form, e.g., the marble Diana (St. Petersburg) and The Bather (Metropolitan Mus. of Art, N.Y.C.). He quickly became famous in Paris for his extraordinarily accurate portrait sculptures and received commissions from all over the world. In 1785 he visited the United States briefly and stayed at Mt. Vernon while making studies for his statue of Washington (capitol, Richmond, Va.). Among his portrait busts are those of Jefferson, Franklin, Diderot, Rousseau, John Paul Jones, Napoleon, Josephine, Lafayette, Molière, Mirabeau, Buffon, and Prince Henry of Prussia, and he also sculpted a full-length statue of Voltaire (Comédie Française). He succeeded not only in creating sculptural documents of his time, but in developing a type of portraiture remarkable for its elegance, measured realism, and depiction of individuality. Houdon exerted a strong influence over European and American sculptors for several generations.

Bibliography: See A. L. Poulet, Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment (2004)