Memoirs of the life and works of Jean Antoine Houdon : the sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington . approbation to the His Morpheushas always been the figure cited as the one to win his reception intothe Academy through a life-size model in plaster, the only exem-plar of which is now in the Museum at Gotha. Delerot and Le-grelle and Montaiglon and Duplessis both give currency to thesuggestion that the figure had been executed in Rome; but a laterwriter, Paul Vitry, in a contribution to the Revue de lArt in1907, makes out a strong case against this idea. According to his ac-count, the
Memoirs of the life and works of Jean Antoine Houdon : the sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington . approbation to the His Morpheushas always been the figure cited as the one to win his reception intothe Academy through a life-size model in plaster, the only exem-plar of which is now in the Museum at Gotha. Delerot and Le-grelle and Montaiglon and Duplessis both give currency to thesuggestion that the figure had been executed in Rome; but a laterwriter, Paul Vitry, in a contribution to the Revue de lArt in1907, makes out a strong case against this idea. According to his ac-count, the rolls of the Academy under date of July 23, 1769, recordthat Houdon exhibited from his works, that the Academy recog-nized his capacity, and that M. the Directeur will instruct him asto what he is to execute for his reception. Not until nearly eighteenmonths later, on the 31st of December, 1770, does one read that 1 The Rules of the Academy required that one should first be approved, then becomean Academician, afterward Professor, then Rector.—Paul Vitry, La Revue de lArt,No. 119, p. 149. 12. Jean Antoine Houdon 13 Houdon has presented a sketch of the piece ordered him for hisreception, which represents Morpheus. M. Vitry deduces fromthis, and we agree with him, that the Morpheus could hardly havefigured among the student works that the young sculptor hadbrought with him from Rome and which he submitted to thejudges of the Academy in 1769. On the contrary, it would seem tohave been his first original work executed in Paris for submissionto the Academy on final judgment. He doubtless submitted his ficorche first, for the records ofthe Academy under date of September 30, 1769, register his offer1of a copy of this in plaster. Another piece might have been asketch or reduction of his Saint Bruno, and, beyond doubt, somestudies from the antique. When Houdon finally became Acade-mician in the year 1777, he made for his morceau de reception areduced figure, half life size, of his M
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