Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment
"The catalog contains important new documentary information, and the entries cast clear light on both the works exhibited as well as related versions throughout the world. The show is an extraordinary achievement; it makes a contribution of permanent value to the study of a very great artist." - Andrew Butterfield, New York Review of Books; "The essays detail Houdon's artistic development and provide insights into his working methods and his relationships with his subjects, a group that included Moliere, Diderot, Voltaire, Franklin, and Napoleon. In 1783, a critic said of Houdon's portrait busts of contemporary celebrities: 'M. Houdon lacks only the means to make his portraits speak, since, as for likeness, he lacks nothing.'" - New York Times Book Review; "It's often said that there's no such thing as a perfect exhibition.... But it must be said that if there is one, this is it. Poulet has obtained just about every significant Houdon sculpture extant, winnowing the selection carefully to secure the version closest to the artist's hand and eliminating lesser ones, pirated casts, and outright fakes. The catalog is a feat of comprehensive and scrupulous research as well as an enthralling exercise in connoisseurship. Taken together, they give us the definitive portrait of Houdon - a speaking likeness, as it were." - Eric Gibson, New Criterion"