Portrait Bust of a Man

Jean-Antoine Houdon and studio (French, 1741–1828)

1786

Medium/TechniqueStone; white marble with separate white marble socle

DimensionsOverall: 34.9 x 27.9 cm (13 3/4 x 11 in.)

Credit LineBequest of Forsyth Wickes—The Forsyth Wickes Collection

Accession number65.2203

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsSculpture

Collections

Europe

InscriptionsSigned and dated on back of truncation: houdon,f.1786.Provenance1925, La Bouillerie, Crosmière, Sarthe, France; December 4, 1925, La Bouillerie sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 17 bis [see note 1]. David David-Weill (b. 1871 - d. 1952), Paris and Neuilly-sur-Seine, France; 1937, sold by David-Weill to Wildenstein and Company, New York [see note 3]; October 28, 1943, sold by Wildenstein to Forsyth Wickes (b. 1876 - d. 1964), New York and Newport, RI; 1965, bequest of Forsyth Wickes to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 24, 1965)

NOTES:
[1] Sold as "Petit buste ... représentant Monsieur de Biré ... Appartient à N. de X...". See "The Forsyth Wickes Collection" (Boston, 1972), p. 157, cat. no. 104.

[2] See "Sale of the David-Weill Collection," Art News, February 27, 1937, pp. 12, 20.