The Honest Chiseler

More than a century had elapsed after the death of John Paul Jones before the U.S. naval hero's grave was discovered in Paris. By then the appearance of the remains could be tested for verisimilitude only by comparison with a portrait bust of 1781. But the proof was easy. Not only did the dead admiral resemble the sculpture, but the skull shape and measurements were almost identical. And that was not surprising: the marble Jones was sculpted by the deftest hand that touched stone during the 18th century in France, Jean-Antoine Houdon.

Parted Lips. Though he was well-steeped in the classical tradition of sculpture that ennobles the sitter's profile, Houdon was incapable of flattery. He did not spare the pockmarks on the face of French Revolutionary Mirabeau, or embellish the vapid looks of the young Lafayette, or face-lift the homely dewlap of Ben Franklin. The result is that the popular likenesses today of some of the greatest men of the revolutionary periods in France and America started with the passionately accurate chisel of Houdon. Now on view at Massachusetts' Worcester Art Museum is the U.S.'s first comprehensive look, through 33 works, at original likenesses by the great portrait sculptor.

Houdon sculpted with shadow as much as with stone, drilling out the pupils for an astonishingly lifelike look instead of leaving the eyeballs blank. He chiseled out individual character, pried out the significant wrinkle and the evanescent gesture. He parted his subjects' lips so that they seemed ready to speak. Unlike the rococo court sculptors who used the female figure as cool erotic decoration, the neoclassical Houdon used the solid curves of woman to convey sensible warmth. His Shivering Girl and an even more naked Diana were denied admission to the Paris Salon in 1785. Said a critic: "She was too beautiful and too nude to be exposed in public." In short, Houdon was too faithful and true to life.

In the Young U.S. Living in the times of the French Enlightenment, Houdon became one of the first sculptors to live independent of noble patronage. He did the great intellects: Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet, D'Alembert, Buffon. Commissions then brought him to the young U.S. to sculpt Washington in his stolid soldierliness, Franklin in his honest wisdom, Jefferson in his aristocratic brilliance.

At a time when the common man gained his elegance, Houdon treated the great as common men. He crossed with ease from the decaying era of divine right of kings to that of the inalienable rights of men because Houdon was fascinated more with physiognomy than with crowns.

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