Born at Versailles, 1740; died, July 16, 1828.
He gained at the age of nineteen the “Grand Prix” of Sculpture, and
immediately departed for Rome. He was in Italy when Herculaneum and
Pompeii were discovered. He remained for ten years in the Italian
Peninsula, and executed the colossal statue of St. Bruno, founder of
the Cistercian order, which still stands in the Portico of Santa Maria
dei Angeli in Rome.
After his return to France he attained great celebrity, and
“L’Ecorché,” the well-known study of a man’s body after the skin has
been removed, showing all the sinews and muscles, was his work. This
model is still used in all Art Academies.
The United States having decreed that a statue of Washington should
be erected, Houdon was invited to America that he might undertake the
commission. He accompanied Franklin to Philadelphia on the return
of the latter from his embassy in France. Washington gave him many
sittings, and the statue in question is now in the City Hall of
Richmond, Virginia.
Many of his later works are well known, particularly the seated figure
of Voltaire in the foyer of the Théâtre Français.