Jean-Antoine Houdon
Subtitle: sculptor of the Enlightenment
By: Anne L. Poulet, with Guilhem Scherf [and others]
Contributors: Houdon, Jean Antoine, 1741-1828; National Gallery of Art (U.S.); J. Paul Getty Museum; Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
Publisher: Published by the National Gallery of Art in association with the University of Chicago Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Washington, DC
Language: eng
Number of pages: 384
Copyright date: 2003
Subjects: Exhibitions; French Portrait sculpture
Description: French artist Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1826) has long been recognized as the greatest European portrait sculptor of the late eighteenth century, flourishing during both the American and French Revolutions as well as during the Directoire and Empire in France. Whether sculpting a head of state, an intellectual, or a young child, Houdon had an uncanny ability to capture the essence of his subject with a characteristic pose or expression. This lavish exhibition catalogue will immediately take its rightful place as the definitive work on Houdon. With more than one hundred color plates and two hundred black and white halftones, Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment illustrates every stage of the sculptor's fascinating career, from his early portrayals of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to his stunning portraits of American patriots such as George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, John Paul Jones, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Accompanying the images of Houdon's masterworks are four insightful essays that discuss Houdon's views on art (based in part on a newly discovered manuscript written by the artist) as well as his prominence in the highly varied cultures of eighteenth-century France, Germany, and Russia.
Notes: Catalog of an exhibition held at National Gallery of Art, Washington, May 4-Sept. 7, 2003, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Nov. 4, 2003-Jan. 25, 2004, and Musée du château de Versailles, Mar. 1-May 30, 2004.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 361-371) and index.
Table of contents: title: Directors' Foreword / Earl A. Powell III, Deborah Gribbon and Pierre Arizzoli-Clementel; title: Lenders to the Exhibition; title: Preface and Acknowledgments / Anne L. Poulet; title: Houdon, "Above All Modern Artists" / Guilhem Scherf; title: Etat des Choses: A Recently Discovered Document by Houdon / Anne L. Poulet, Ulrike D. Mathies and Christoph Frank; title: Houdon and the German Courts: Serving the Francophile Princes / Ulrike D. Mathies; title: "A Man More Jealous of Glory than of Wealth": Houdon's Dealings with Russia / Christoph Frank; title: Early Works; title: Figures in the Arts; title: Family and Friends; title: Enlightenment Figures; title: Decorative Sculpture; title: American Patriots; title: The Courts of Europe; title: Late Works; title: Boilly's Paintings; title: Abbreviated Chronology of Houdon's Life and Work / Monique Barbier; title: App. Etat des choses renfermees dans les caisses envoyees a son Altesse Monseigneur le Duc de Saxe Gotha.