European Decorative Arts and Sculpture Bust of the Poet Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) Made in France, Europec. 1782-83 Jean-Antoine Houdon, French (active Paris), 1741 - 1828 Marble * Gallery 288, European Art 1500-1850, second floor 1966-174-1 Purchased with the Fiske Kimball Fund and the Marie Kimball Fund, 1966 |
LabelIn 1781, Monsieur Haudry, an art collector in Orléans, France, commissioned a terracotta bust of the poet Jean de La Fontaine as a companion piece to an earlier bust by Houdon showing the playwright Molière. As a point of departure for depicting La Fontaine, Houdon used a seventeenth-century image by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743). In revising the terracotta composition for this marble, the artist enlarged the lower part of the portrait, rendering it grander and making it, in its form, more like a seventeenth-century bust. This sculpture was probably the one Houdon exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1783.* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit. |
