Seated Voltaire

Jean Antoine Houdon was a French sculptor renowned for his portrait busts and monumental figural works executed in marble and bronze. Active in the late eighteenth century, he became the preeminent portraitist of the French Enlightenment, capturing likenesses of philosophers, statesmen, and aristocrats with anatomical precision and psychological acuity. His work bridges Baroque dynamism and Neoclassical restraint, establishing a standard for commemorative sculpture that influenced European practice for generations.

Versailles, France