File:Memoirs of the life and works of Jean Antoine Houdon - the sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington (1911) (14798882983).jpg

Identifier: memoirsoflifewor00hart (find matches)
Title: Memoirs of the life and works of Jean Antoine Houdon : the sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Hart, Charles Henry, 1847-1918 Biddle, Edward
Subjects: Houdon, Jean Antoine, 1741-1828
Publisher: Philadelphia : printed for the authors
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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nown that when a writer of fiction of his day had need fora great sculptors name, that of Houdon fell naturally from his pen.Thus de Tressan, in his pretty story, Petit Jehan de Saintre,writes this passage. He is describing a monk brought up in anabbey. His talents, his charming countenance, his strength, hismeasure of height, perfected themselves from day to day, and thecelebrated Houdon would have chosen him as a model had hewished to chisel a Hercules. In addition to being made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honorby Napoleon, as we have seen, he was made a Chevalier of the Em-pire by letters patent of January 28, 1809, which eight years laterwas confirmed by Louis XVIII. As some persons can better measure the appreciation of an artistby the commercial value of his works, Houdon will not fall belowtheir estimate when tested by this commercialism. Almost threedecades ago, in 1883, at the Baroness de Courvalles sale, Houdonsmarble bust of Mme. Servat sold for 44,000 francs, while at the
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SAlBIIflS IHIdDTITIDaW Jean Antoine Houdon 279 famous Talleyrand-Sagan sale in Paris, May, 1899, Houdons Mo-liere, in white marble, signed and dated 1782, brought 50,000francs, and his bust of La Fontaine, in the same material, 30,000francs. In 1908, a well-known London dealer had plaster busts ofVoltaire and of Rousseau, which had been presented to the Societedes Amis de lInstruction, at Geneva, in the eighteenth century,and bearing a seal inscribed, Acade. Royale de Peinture et Sculp.Houdon sc, for which he asked two thousand pounds. They wereacquired by Mr. J. P. Morgan, and are now in the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, New York. The sale of the Diana in New York,in 1910, for $51,000, and of the Claudine in Paris, this year, for48,000 francs, are further proof. Now that we have seen Houdon in his life and in his works, wenaturally turn to consider what manner of man he was; how heappeared to his contemporaries and to his friends and to the legionof distinguished personages whose indivi

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