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Lot Essay
Eminent philosopher and emblem of the 18th-century Enlightenment, François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire (1694-1778), is one of the most important figures in French history.
During his life, several great artists wished to pay tribute to the man and to the symbolism of his commitments and philosophy. In 1770, Jean- Baptiste Pigalle chose to depict him seated and in heroic nudity (Musée du Louvre, inv. ENT 1962.01). A few years later, his pupil Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) included a bust of Voltaire in his series of portraits of illustrious men. This major sculptor of the second half of the 18th century was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1761, allowing him to study in Italy, was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1769 and travelled to Prussia, Russia and the United States.
Shortly before his death on 30 May 1778, Voltaire returned to Paris and agreed to pose for Houdon after encountering his recent portrait of Molière. Houdon modelled three different busts, all of which were subsequently sculpted in various materials including marble, bronze, plaster and terracotta. In one version, Houdon depicts him in bust form wearing a jacket, waistcoat and wig (National Gallery of Art, Washington, inv. 1942.9.127). His second model shows the man of letters with his head girded with the philosophers' headband, the initial models of which are versions of “Voltaire seated”.
The third model is the one shown here. Houdon borrowed the classic formula of the shortened, unadorned bust, already used for his portrait of Diderot in 1771 thus creating a visual link between the two great philosophers of the Enlightenment. Marble busts of Voltaire are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 1972.61), the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. 1963.10.240), the Louvre (inv. RF 3520) and the Musée d'Angers (inv. MBA 54 [J1881] S), and a very fine bronze version is in the Louvre (inv. RF 345).
All the examples of this last model, including our terracotta head, bear witness to Voltaire's physical fragility but also to his great wisdom, the depiction of his face revealing an agile mind. The sculptor captured the features of an 83-year-old man in all his simplicity and intelligence, just a few days before his death, seeming to foreshadow the privilege granted to Houdon of casting the thinker's death mask.
Of all the portraits Houdon made of the philosopher, the version offered here was Voltaire’s favourite. It is therefore hardly surprising that the philosopher chose this bust as a gift for one of his most loyal admirers, Charles Juste de Beauvau-Craon (1720-1793), during his last stay in Paris. In Souvenirs de la maréchale princesse de Beauvau, née Rohan-Chabot: suivis des Mémoires du maréchal prince de Beauvau, Marie-Charlotte de Rohan-Chabot Beauvau, the prince's great granddaughter, writes: ‘[Beauvau] sincerely loved Voltaire, who from that time on took for himself a friendship and veneration that have never wavered’, and supports her statement by publishing some of the warm exchanges between the two friends.
It was during his last stay in Paris that Voltaire gifted his bust to the Prince of Beauvau. On 30 March 1778, after 30 years in exile, Voltaire paid a farewell visit to various public figures and institutions, including the Académie, where Beauvau was responsible for ‘taking the delegation that went to compliment Voltaire and convey to him the wishes of the Company for his recovery during his illness’. The philosopher continued his triumphal tour through Paris to the Comédie Française for the performance of his last tragedy Irène, during which a laurel wreath was respectfully placed on the author's head. Various bibliographers have seized on this episode, notably Gustave Desnoiresterres, who described it as follows in 1876: ‘The crown! was shouted. The actor Brizard entered at the same moment, holding a laurel wreath which he placed on the poet's head. ‘Ah, God, you want to make me die by dint of glory!’ said the old man in a voice choked with emotion, joy and tears. But he immediately withdrew it with a modest haste, and passed it to the young marquise, to whom the drunken audience shouted to put it back on the forehead of the French Sophocles. She hastened to obey. Voltaire would not allow it, he struggled, refusing this idolatry, when the Prince de Beauvau, seizing the laurel, again girded it on the forehead of the patriarch, who saw clearly that he would not be the most important person in the world.
This event is sometimes supplemented by another, more legendary episode in which the actors celebrated, a bust of Voltaire placed on the stage was crowned and covered with flowers, probably the one made by Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne in 1748 (see A. Poulet (ed.), Jean-Antoine Houdon. Sculpteur des Lumières, Paris/Washington, 2003, pp. 152-156, no. 23. ). Several representations, including the drawing by Jean-Michel Moreau Le Jeune (The Coronation of Voltaire, 30 March 1778, drawing, 18.3 x 23.6 cm, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, PD.92-1961), bear witness to this extraordinary event.
A defender and author of all Truths, it is nevertheless a romanticised account that celebrates the greatness of the tribute paid to him. The decisive presence of the Prince de Beauvau and the central place of a bust of Voltaire in this episode echo the rarity and historical importance of our bust.
This bust will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Jean-Antoine Houdon prepared by the researcher Valérie Roger during the Daniel Wildenstein project.
During his life, several great artists wished to pay tribute to the man and to the symbolism of his commitments and philosophy. In 1770, Jean- Baptiste Pigalle chose to depict him seated and in heroic nudity (Musée du Louvre, inv. ENT 1962.01). A few years later, his pupil Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) included a bust of Voltaire in his series of portraits of illustrious men. This major sculptor of the second half of the 18th century was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1761, allowing him to study in Italy, was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1769 and travelled to Prussia, Russia and the United States.
Shortly before his death on 30 May 1778, Voltaire returned to Paris and agreed to pose for Houdon after encountering his recent portrait of Molière. Houdon modelled three different busts, all of which were subsequently sculpted in various materials including marble, bronze, plaster and terracotta. In one version, Houdon depicts him in bust form wearing a jacket, waistcoat and wig (National Gallery of Art, Washington, inv. 1942.9.127). His second model shows the man of letters with his head girded with the philosophers' headband, the initial models of which are versions of “Voltaire seated”.
The third model is the one shown here. Houdon borrowed the classic formula of the shortened, unadorned bust, already used for his portrait of Diderot in 1771 thus creating a visual link between the two great philosophers of the Enlightenment. Marble busts of Voltaire are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 1972.61), the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. 1963.10.240), the Louvre (inv. RF 3520) and the Musée d'Angers (inv. MBA 54 [J1881] S), and a very fine bronze version is in the Louvre (inv. RF 345).
All the examples of this last model, including our terracotta head, bear witness to Voltaire's physical fragility but also to his great wisdom, the depiction of his face revealing an agile mind. The sculptor captured the features of an 83-year-old man in all his simplicity and intelligence, just a few days before his death, seeming to foreshadow the privilege granted to Houdon of casting the thinker's death mask.
Of all the portraits Houdon made of the philosopher, the version offered here was Voltaire’s favourite. It is therefore hardly surprising that the philosopher chose this bust as a gift for one of his most loyal admirers, Charles Juste de Beauvau-Craon (1720-1793), during his last stay in Paris. In Souvenirs de la maréchale princesse de Beauvau, née Rohan-Chabot: suivis des Mémoires du maréchal prince de Beauvau, Marie-Charlotte de Rohan-Chabot Beauvau, the prince's great granddaughter, writes: ‘[Beauvau] sincerely loved Voltaire, who from that time on took for himself a friendship and veneration that have never wavered’, and supports her statement by publishing some of the warm exchanges between the two friends.
It was during his last stay in Paris that Voltaire gifted his bust to the Prince of Beauvau. On 30 March 1778, after 30 years in exile, Voltaire paid a farewell visit to various public figures and institutions, including the Académie, where Beauvau was responsible for ‘taking the delegation that went to compliment Voltaire and convey to him the wishes of the Company for his recovery during his illness’. The philosopher continued his triumphal tour through Paris to the Comédie Française for the performance of his last tragedy Irène, during which a laurel wreath was respectfully placed on the author's head. Various bibliographers have seized on this episode, notably Gustave Desnoiresterres, who described it as follows in 1876: ‘The crown! was shouted. The actor Brizard entered at the same moment, holding a laurel wreath which he placed on the poet's head. ‘Ah, God, you want to make me die by dint of glory!’ said the old man in a voice choked with emotion, joy and tears. But he immediately withdrew it with a modest haste, and passed it to the young marquise, to whom the drunken audience shouted to put it back on the forehead of the French Sophocles. She hastened to obey. Voltaire would not allow it, he struggled, refusing this idolatry, when the Prince de Beauvau, seizing the laurel, again girded it on the forehead of the patriarch, who saw clearly that he would not be the most important person in the world.
This event is sometimes supplemented by another, more legendary episode in which the actors celebrated, a bust of Voltaire placed on the stage was crowned and covered with flowers, probably the one made by Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne in 1748 (see A. Poulet (ed.), Jean-Antoine Houdon. Sculpteur des Lumières, Paris/Washington, 2003, pp. 152-156, no. 23. ). Several representations, including the drawing by Jean-Michel Moreau Le Jeune (The Coronation of Voltaire, 30 March 1778, drawing, 18.3 x 23.6 cm, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, PD.92-1961), bear witness to this extraordinary event.
A defender and author of all Truths, it is nevertheless a romanticised account that celebrates the greatness of the tribute paid to him. The decisive presence of the Prince de Beauvau and the central place of a bust of Voltaire in this episode echo the rarity and historical importance of our bust.
This bust will be included in the catalogue raisonné of Jean-Antoine Houdon prepared by the researcher Valérie Roger during the Daniel Wildenstein project.