Jean Antoine Houdon
| Jean-Antoine Houdon | |
|---|---|
1808 portrait by Rembrandt Peale
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| Born |
25 March 1741 Versailles (city) |
| Died | 15 July 1828 (aged 87) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture |
| Known for | Portrait sculpture |
| Spouse(s) | Marie-Ange-Cecile Langlois |
| Awards | Prix de Rome |
Jean-Antoine Houdon (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃n‿ɑ̃twan udɔ̃]) (25 March 1741 – 15 July 1828) was a French neoclassical sculptor.
Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment. Houdon's subjects include Denis Diderot (1771), Benjamin Franklin (1778-09), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1778), Voltaire (1781), Molière (1781), George Washington (1785–88), Thomas Jefferson (1789), Louis XVI (1790), Robert Fulton, (1803–04), and Napoléon Bonaparte (1806).
He was born in Versailles, on 25 March 1741. In 1752, he entered the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, where he studied with René-Michel Slodtz, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. From 1761 to 1764, he studied at the École royale des élèves protégés.
Houdon won the Prix de Rome in 1761, but was not greatly influenced by ancient and Renaissance art in Rome. His stay in the city is marked by two characteristic and important productions: the superb écorché (1767), an anatomical model which has served as a guide to all artists since his day, and the statue of Saint Bruno in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome. After ten years stay in Italy, Houdon returned to Paris.
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