VI36
© A. Dequier, coll. Comédie-Française
- Artist:
- Year of creation:
- 1781
- Place of creation:
- Object type:
- sculpture
- Materials:
- marble
- Dimensions:
- 106 x 140 cm
- Current location:
- Comédie française, Paris
- Collection ID number:
- S 0148
- Collection link:
- https://comedie-francaise.bibli.fr/ark:/63615/nthccpq9tp
- Inscriptions:
- [on the left side of the plinth] HOUDON FECIT 1781
- [on the front of the plinth] VOLTAIRE
- Keywords:
- gown, toga, chair, armchair, no wig, bandeau de philosophes, sitting, smile, wrinkles, toothless
- People represented:
- Bibliography:
- Axelle Davadie, Hélène Susini, and Yannick Vandenberghe, “Voltaire assis, Jean-Antoine Houdon, une ronde-bosse en carton”, CRBC 32 (2014), pp. 51-60.
- Garry Apgar, “‘Sage comme une image’: trois siècles d'iconographie voltairienne”, Nouvelles de l'estampe 135 (juillet 1994), pp. 15, 37, fig. 15.
- Georges Giacometti, La vie et l’œuvre de Jean-Antoine Houdon, Paris: A. Camoin, 1929, vol. 1, p. 32, 181, vol. 2, pp. 262-282.
- Guilhem Scherf, Houdon, 1741–1828: statues, portraits sculptés, Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2006, pp. 190-193, cat. no. 36.
- Hjorvardur Harvard Arnason, The Sculptures of Houdon, New York: Oxford University Press, 1975, pp. 49-51.
- Jacques Van den Heuvel, Album Voltaire: iconographie choisie et commentée par Jacques Van den Heuvel, Paris: Gallimard, 1983, pp. 282-283, figs. 406, 407.
- Jennifer Montagu, “Inventaire des tableaux, sculptures, estampes, etc. de l'Institut et musée Voltaire”, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 20 (1962), pp. 223-247, here p. 227.
- Juliette Niclausse, Thomire, fondeur-ciseleur (1751–1843), Paris: Librarie Gründ, 1947, p. 120.
- Louis Gielly, Voltaire: documents iconographiques, Geneva: Pierre Cailler, 1948, fig. 55.
- Louis Réau, Houdon: sa vie et son œuvre, Paris: F. de Nobele, 1964, vol. 1, pp. 45, 52, 54-57, 70, 71, 96, 97, 99, 169, 180, 272-281, 300, 427, 480, 482, vol. 2, p. 19, cat. no. 35. More...
- Related:
- [marble copy made for Catherine II, inscribed "HOUDON FECIT, 1781"] Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Н.ск-9
- [plaster, believed to be the original model for the marbles, inscribed on the right side of the plinth "houdon f. 1781"] Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, https://classes.bnf.fr/essentiels/grand/ess_695.htm
- [small-scale bronze model for the future marble commissioned by Catherine II, possibly cast by Pierre-Philippe Thomire, inscribed on the plaque at the front of the socle: "PRESENTE / A SA MAJESTE / IMPERIALE / PAR SON TRES HUMBLE / ET TRES OBEISSANT / SERVITEUR HOUDON / en 1779", stolen from Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam on 24 November 2000] unknown
- [small-scale terracotta model for the future monuments, inscribed on the fornt side of the plinth "Voltaire", on the right side of the plinth "f. p. houdon en 1778", and on the pedestal: “Ô Parnasse, fremis de douleur et déffroi ; / Brisés, Muses, brisées vos lyres immortelles, / Toi dont il fatigua les cent voix et les ailes, / Dis que Voltaire est mort, pleure et repose-toi.”] Musée Lambinet, Versailles, 1070
- [small-scale terracotta model for the future monuments, cachet d'atelier on the back] Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, M.124-1961
- [small-scale bronze model for the future monuments, inscribed "DONNE / PAR FREDERIC / PRINCE DE WALDECK / 1790"] Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, 6
- [small-scale plaster model for the future monuments, inscribed on the front of the plinth: "VOLTAIRE", on the right side of the plinth: "HOUDON 1778", cachet d'atelier on the back] Musée du Louvre, Paris, RF 926
- [small-scale plaster model for the future monuments] Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes, 1804
- [small-scale plaster model for the future monuments, inscribed "VOLTAIRE", cachet d'atelier on the back] Metropolitan Museum, New York, 52.211
- [small-scale plaster model for the future monuments, inscribed "VOLTAIRE"] The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 27.347 More...
