Bust of a Woman of African Descent after 1794 After a model by Jean Antoine Houdon This small bust is a reduction of a life-sized painted plaster by Houdon in the Musée de Soissons, believed to have been exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1781. The Soissons plaster has traditionally been associated with the fountain made by Houdon for Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans, duc de Chartre’s (the future duc d'Orléans) exotic English gardens designed by Carmontelle at Monceau, near Paris. Carmontelle’s guidebook of the gardens, published in 1779, apparently before the fountain had been installed, records
Bust of a Woman of African Descent after 1794 After a model by Jean Antoine Houdon This small bust is a reduction of a life-sized painted plaster by Houdon in the Musée de Soissons, believed to have been exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1781. The Soissons plaster has traditionally been associated with the fountain made by Houdon for Louis Philippe Joseph d’Orléans, duc de Chartre’s (the future duc d'Orléans) exotic English gardens designed by Carmontelle at Monceau, near Paris. Carmontelle’s guidebook of the gardens, published in 1779, apparently before the fountain had been installed, records a description of Houdon’s fountain group as consisting of a standing black servant pouring water over a white seated bather. This bather, now in the Museum’s collection (), is the sole remnant of the extraordinary fountain group, the rest of which was destroyed during the French Revolution. It is likely that the Soissons bust was either a study for or derived directly from this servant figure. The present bust bears on its socle an inscription commemorating the National Convention’s abolition of slavery in the French colonies on February 4, 1794. The inscription evidently was added to the original bust by Houdon during the Revolution, when the artist was criticized for not sufficiently manifesting his support for the Republican Bust of a Woman of African Descent. After a model by Jean Antoine Houdon (French, Versailles 1741–1828 Paris). French. after 1794. Painted unfired clay. Sculpture
Size: 3200px × 4000px
Photo credit: © MET/BOT / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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