Jean-Antoine Houdon

Lore & Background

Houdon was born in Versailles on 20 March 1741. In 1752, he entered the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, studying under René-Michel Slodtz, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. He won the Prix de Rome in 1761 and studied at the École royale des élèves protégés from 1761 to 1764. During his stay in Rome, he produced the écorché (1767), an anatomical model, and a statue of Saint Bruno. After four years in Italy, he returned to Paris and submitted Morpheus to the Salon of 1771, developing his practice of portrait busts.

He became a member of the Académie de peinture et de sculpture in 1771 and a professor in 1778. That year, he modeled Voltaire, producing busts for the Comédie-Française, the Palace of Versailles, and Catherine the Great. He joined the masonic lodge Les Neuf Sœurs in 1778, where he met Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones. In 1785, Franklin invited Houdon to cross the Atlantic to visit Mount Vernon, where George Washington sat for wet clay life models and a plaster life mask. These models served for many commissions, including a standing figure for the Virginia State Capitol. Houdon married Marie-Ange-Cecile Langlois on 1 July 1786; they had three daughters.

Reader's Guide

Houdon's significance lies in his role as a leading neoclassical sculptor who captured the likenesses of key Enlightenment figures. His portrait busts and statues of Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Molière, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Louis XVI, Robert Fulton, and Napoléon Bonaparte document the intellectual and political leaders of his era. His Washington sculptures, produced after a direct sitting at Mount Vernon, became iconic images, with variations portraying Washington as a general, in classical style, or as Roman Consul Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. Houdon's écorché remained a guide for artists. Perceived as bourgeois for his court connections, he fell out of favor during the French Revolution but escaped imprisonment. He returned to favor under the Consulate and Empire, contributing to the Column of the Grande Armée at Wimille. His sculptures later served as models for U.S. postage stamps depicting Washington. Houdon died in Paris on 15 July 1828 and was interred at Montparnasse Cemetery.

Did You Know?

• Houdon produced an écorché in 1767, an anatomical model that served as a guide for artists.
• He joined the masonic lodge Les Neuf Sœurs in 1778, where he met Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones.
• His portrait of George Washington was based on wet clay life models and a plaster life mask made at Mount Vernon in 1785.
• Houdon was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur on 17 December 1804.