Robert Fulton

ca. 1804

Jean-Antoine Houdon French, 1741-1828

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

Era of Revolution, Level 3, South Wing

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Published References

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About the Artwork

Houdon, the greatest French neoclassical portrait sculptor, has captured the American inventor's complex character—intelligent, self-assured, energetic, and sensitive—qualified perhaps by the merest trace of discouragement, reflecting the problems with his imperfect experiments, thus far, with submarines and steam-powered ships attempted off the French coast. Fulton's strikingly handsome appearance is reinforced by his austere yet elegant French attire and fashionable hair style. He was thirty-eight, an American living in Paris, when he posed for the celebrated French sculptor. Houdon portrays Fulton's tenacity through restrained modeling. The choice of Fulton as a subject was consistent with Houdon's admiration of men of science and diplomacy, including such preeminent Americans as Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin.

Title Robert Fulton

Artwork Date ca. 1804

Artist Jean-Antoine Houdon

Life Dates 1741-1828

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. French

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Marble

Dimensions Overall (including socle): 28 3/4 × 20 × 12 3/4 inches (73 × 50.8 × 32.4 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department European Sculpture and Dec Arts

Credit Gift of Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 49.23

Markings

Signed Signed, on right shoulder: houdon f. AN XII

Inscriptions ------

Provenance

Decres Family (La Chapelle Vieille Forêt, France)

P.A. Rockefeller (New York, New York, USA)

Jonce McGurk (New York, New York, USA)

Dexter M. Ferry, Jr.

1949-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Exh. cat., Paris Salon. Paris, 1804, no. 639.

Grigault, P. "Houdon's Marble Bust of Robert Fulton." Bulletin of the DIA 28, no. 4 (1948-1949): pp. 79-80 (cover ill.).

Grigaut, P. "A Marble Bust of Robert Fulton by Houdon." Art Quarterly 12, no. 3 (Summer 1949): pp. 257- 262 (ill.).

Sculpture by Houdon. Exh. cat., Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, MA, 1964, pp. 124-127 (ill.).

"Living Faces of Our Past." Life Magazine 57, no. 1, pp. 72-78 (ill.).

"Family Art Game." DIA Advertising Supplement, Detroit News/Detroit Free Press, April 30, 1982, p. 31 (ill.).

Brookner, A. Jacques-Louis David. New York, 1980, p. 94.

Recent Acquisitions: A Selection 1989-1990. Exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1990, p. 30.

Poulet, Anne L. Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington. Chicago, 2003, cat. 49, pp. 275–278 (ill.).

Scherf, Guilhem. Houdon at the Louvre: Masterworks of the Enlightenment. Exh. cat., High Museum of Art. Atlanta, 2008, pp. 150, 176.

Buckling M. and G. Scherf, eds. Jean-Antoine Houdon. Die Sinnliche Skulptur. Frankfurt, 2009, pp. 210–213 (ill.).

Poindront, P. "Houdon, pere de la sculpture classique." L'objet d'art 454 (February 2010): p. 10.

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