Memoirs of the life and works of Jean Antoine Houdon : the sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington . umber 248,is written: This Diana is to be executed in marble, and placed inthe gardens of his Highness the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. This ap-parently never came to fruition, for the only exemplar in the Mu-seum of Gotha is a figure in gypsum. What has come to light,however, as a result of the discussion, is the undoubted fact that ofthis celebrated Diana, the most illustrious example of the nudefeminine in French statuary, as Louis Gonze appreciates it, therehave been two distinct productions. Accusto
Memoirs of the life and works of Jean Antoine Houdon : the sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington . umber 248,is written: This Diana is to be executed in marble, and placed inthe gardens of his Highness the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. This ap-parently never came to fruition, for the only exemplar in the Mu-seum of Gotha is a figure in gypsum. What has come to light,however, as a result of the discussion, is the undoubted fact that ofthis celebrated Diana, the most illustrious example of the nudefeminine in French statuary, as Louis Gonze appreciates it, therehave been two distinct productions. Accustomed as we are to theliberal ideas of Frenchmen where matters of art are concerned, itcertainly seemed surprising to find that the very beautiful statue ofDiana, as we know it from the bronze of the Louvre and thecasts that have been made from it, should have been forbidden ex-hibition by the Commissioners of the Louvre at two Salons: those 1 Life-size greyhound in terra-cotta, in a private collection in Paris. Vide UnLevrier. Terre-cuite originale de Houdon. Par Georges Giacometti. Paris, lyKAUDAMIIE YICTOIKB Jean Antoine Houdon 25 of 1777 and 1781. Now that we have seen a reproduction of themarble at St. Petersburg, published in Les Arts for January,1907, it is easy to understand the scruples which might have influ-enced even a very liberal-minded jury. As the writer in Les Artsputs it, The marble at St. Petersburg enters into naturalistic detail,and is objectionable on this account. It was of this same marblethat La Harpe in his Compendium Litteraire wrote: It is toolovely and too nude for a statue intended for public exhibition. The bronze of the Museum at Tours, cast in 1839, is said to befrom the same original model; in fact, it bears the signature ofHoudon and the date 1776, showing that these had been preservedin the plaster. This is undoubtedly the model shown at Houdonsstudio in 1777, failing the right of exhibition at the Salon of thesame year. The second exemp
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmemoirsoflif, bookyear1911
