HOUDON, Jean-Antoine
(b. 1741, Versailles, d. 1828, Paris)

Bust of Alexandre Brongniart

1777
Marble, height 39 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

This keen-eyed mischievous-looking boy is Alexandre Brongniart, son of the architect Alexandre Théodore Brongniart (1739-1813). It seems fitting that the popularity of this bust, existing also in terracotta and bronze, should have extended to its manufacture in Sèvres porcelain, since the adult Alexandre was to become director of the Sèvres factory.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.