Portrait Bust of Voltaire (Francois Marie Arouet) 1694 - 1791

“This bust skilfully captures the incisive wit and perception that to successive generations have become famous as the defining features of Voltaire’s intelligence.”

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This bust skilfully captures the incisive wit and perception that to successive generations have become famous as the defining features of Voltaire's intelligence. It is based on a type executed by the celebrated French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, a marble example of which is in the collection of the Hermitage, St Petersburg. The drapery suggesting a Greek cloak and the fillet bound about the temples conform to late eighteenth -and, indeed, subsequent- conceptions of how a latter-day cynic philosopher should be portrayed in art. Houdon's genius in distilling the essence of the principal figures of his day is reflected in the fact that his images of men such as Washington and Jefferson have become some of their most enduring icons.