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.
