Jean-Antoine Houdon

Photograph of marble sculpture of bust of woman with roses in her hair and ivy draped across her breast
Jean-Antoine Houdon: Eight Portrait Busts
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In line with other exhibitions devoted to lesser-known aspects of its holdings, The Frick Collection presented an exhibition organized around its marble portrait busts by Houdon: Comtesse du Cayla and Armand-Thomas Hue, Marquis de Miromesnil. Joining these two sculptures, both dated 1777, was another version of the Miromesnil bust, dated 1775, lent by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, as well as Denis Diderot  (1773; The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Madame Pierre-François His (1775; E.V.

Exhibition catalogue cover with blue background and grey text.
Franklin and Condorcet: Two Portraits from the American Philosophical Society
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An exhibition of two remarkable portraits of famous men lent by the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia: an oil on canvas representing Benjamin Franklin painted by Jean-Baptiste Greuze in 1777, and a marble bust of Nicolas de Condorcet executed by Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1785. Also on view was a small group of letters, manuscripts, and eighteenth-century publications relating to the history of the two portraits and the relations between the American statesman and the mathematician, philosopher, and revolutionary.

Marble bust of a woman glancing over right shoulder with long, curly hair pulled back and leaves adorning her garment
Enlightenment and Beauty: Sculptures by Houdon and Clodion
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Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828) and Claude Michel, called Clodion (1738–1814), were two of the foremost sculptors in France during the late eighteenth century, and the Frick housed an important group of their works. In 1915 founder Henry Clay Frick acquired Clodion’s terracotta Zephyrus and Flora and, the following year, Houdon’s marble bust of the Comtesse du Cayla. Other works that were subsequently added to the collection were shown together for the first time, highlighting the artists’ expressive ranges, as well as their defining contributions to the sculpture of Enlightenment-era France. MORE »

Marble bust of a woman glancing over right shoulder with long, curly hair pulled back and leaves adorning her garment
Enlightenment and Beauty: Sculptures by Houdon and Clodion
photo of sculpture of nude huntress carrying bow on table in gallery
Frick Collection Welcomes Public to View Newly Reopened and Refurbished Fragonard Room
Marble bust of a woman draped in a garment that exposes her shoulders with long, curly hair pulled back away from her face
The Frick Announces Two Important Acquisitions: Eighteenth-Century Sculptures Given by Eugene V. Thaw and The Quentin Foundation
Spherical glass and gilt-brass clock supported by a terracotta sculpture of a pillar surrounded by three nude female figures with arms outstretched
Director Anne L. Poulet Announces Two Additions to The Frick Collection
Marble sculpture of a dead songbird hanging upside down, pinned by its legs to a flat wall-like surface
Rare Houdon Work on Loan to The Frick Collection
video still of Giulio Dalvit standing in front of sculpture of nude woman in gallery
Unboxing Diana

A single figure has witnessed all the phases of the Frick’s renovation over the last four years: Diana the Huntress, a life-size terracotta by Jean-Antoine Houdon. Due to the sculpture’s fragility, Diana remained in the museum’s Portico Gallery, safely crated throughout the project. To mark her recent unboxing, Giulio Dalvit, Associate Curator, explores the history and technical feats of Houdon’s daringly balanced statue.

video still of Giulio Dalvit and marble bust of woman
Cocktails with a Curator: Houdon’s “Comtesse du Cayla”

In this week’s episode of Cocktails with a Curator, Assistant Curator Giulio Dalvit examines the beguiling marble bust of The Comtesse du Cayla by Jean-Antoine Houdon. This beautifully intimate portrait showcases the artist’s virtuoso rendering of surfaces and volumes—it is almost impossible to imagine that the grapevine-girdled Comtesse began as a single block of marble. This week’s complementary cocktail, the Frosé, evokes summers in the south of France, where her family owned vast estates.