Jean-Antoine Houdon

Mrs. Eliza Radeke acquired this unusual and important drawing for the RISD Museum at a Paris auction in 1929 through her art agent, Martin Birnbaum. It had been shown that same year at the centenary exhibition of Houdon’s work at the Palace of Versailles. Since then, it has come to light that the present drawing is the only work on paper by the eminent sculptor Houdon to be universally accepted as authentic. Created as a study for the sculptural tomb of Monsieur Guillard, who was a member of the highest chamber of Parliament and who died in 1772, the artist employed allegorical figures in classical dress to honor the deceased. Sorrow, seated languidly in the foreground, is directed by the figure of Justice toward Fame. Fame hangs a medallion portrait of Guillard on a classical column. If completed, the figural grouping would have been quite remarkable for freestanding sculpture; however, no related three-dimensional work survives.