Jean-Antoine Houdon - A French Sculpturing Revolution

French Neo-Classical sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon was famous for his portraits and sculptures of famous politicians, philosophers, and inventors associated with the French revolutionary Age of Enlightenment. He was born on March 20, 1741, in the city of Versailles. All of Houdon's works belong to the Age of Enlightenment, where the innovation challenged the traditional beliefs to gain space for new ideas in order to propagate them as a ritual.

Houdon studied under the French Royal Scholarship. During his art training, he took exceptional interest in ancient art and history. Sculpturing fascinated him and he soon started displaying the sculptures of mythological and allegorical figures. The art lovers appreciated his sculptures for the realistic and intimate emotions they portrayed. In 1761, he was awarded the Prix de Rome scholarship. In 1771, when he was in Rome, Renaissance Art did inspire him, but moderately. His famous artworks of those times include Ecorche (1767) and the statue of Saint Bruno in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.

After a decade's stay in Italy, the artist returned to Paris in 1771. The same year he joined Academie de peinture et de sculpture, Paris, as a member. He became a professor in 1778. Houdon also exhibited the Rococo or the Neo-Classicist style, which was new to European art. He worked with various materials, like marble, terra, plaster, clay, bronze, and cotta. He was initially commissioned to work for French Nobility, but his popularity eventually grew to such heights that he started portraying famous personalities. He created four different busts for the famous philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778). The most known one among those four busts was Voltaire depicted in a seated position. This bust currently resides at the Comedie-Francaise, France.

In 1785, he crossed the Atlantic on a special invitation from one of the founders of USA, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), to carve out the bust of the first US President George Washington (1732-99). For several weeks, he studied Washington in his house in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Then finally, he created several busts and statues of George Washington around 1785. All the works looked too real, full of emotions. One of the most famous of these was a marble statue. It was set up in 1788 in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, USA. The other famous personalities whose statues Houdon created were the marble busts of Diderot (1771, Seymour Collection, New Haven); George Washington (1789-1808, Louvre, Paris); Mirabeau (1800, Versailles Chateau); Napoleon (1806, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Dijon); Thomas Jefferson (1789, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston).

Jean-Antoine Houdon was famous for instilling life in his statues. He well exhibited the intellectual abilities, the power, and the aristocracy of such famous philosophers. Due to this extraordinary ability, he became a member of the famous Academie de peinture et de sculpture in 1771 and consequently became a professor in 1778. Owing to his association with the French King Louis XVI (1754-93), the artist's position became weak during the French Revolution (1789-99). With the arrival of the French Consulate (1799-1804) through the First French Empire (1804-14), the sculptor was back to his cozy existence. Houdon died on July 15, 1828, in Paris. He was buried at the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, Paris.

Although he faced a lot of struggle in the French Revolution, Jean-Antoine never feared to challenge the traditional ideas. His ingenuity and innovation marked with the years of experience helped the young artists learn a lot from him. It is widely said that 'Houdon's talents as a sculptor brought unparalleled sensitivity and invention to the sculpted portrait.'

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