Voltaire (Marie François Arouet, 1694–1778)

Art Historical Context

This striking bust captures the likeness of Voltaire, the renowned French Enlightenment writer and philosopher born Marie François Arouet (1694–1778). Created by Jean-Antoine Houdon, one of the leading sculptors of his era, the work dates to the late eighteenth century and follows a model Houdon produced in 1778, the year of Voltaire’s death. As a French neoclassical artist celebrated for his lifelike portraits of intellectual figures, Houdon brought both precision and vitality to representations of the era’s leading minds. The sculpture’s medium—painted plaster mounted on painted and gilded ...