Christoph Willibald Gluck

Houdon, Jean-Antoine (1741-1828)


Item type:
sculpture
Date of creation:
ca. 1775
Height:
67.0 cm  (26 3/8 in.)
Technique / Medium:
terracotta
Place of creation:
France

    Item location

  • Royal College of Music, Centre for Performance History

Description

An unidealised head and shoulders portrait bust, with the subject's head turned to his left.

People as subjects

Gluck, Christoph Willibald Ritter von (1714-1787) (Conductor portrait)

Bibliographic references

Montagu, Jennifer. Jean-Antoine Houdon. I Maestri della Scultura no. 53 (Milano: Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1966), pl. II.

Poulet, Anne L. Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment (Washington: National Gallery of Art; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003) 108.

Notes

This strikingly unidealized portrait bust of the composer was probably produced in connection with a commission for a large-scale marble statue from the Academie de musique (i.e. the Paris Opera). That work was destroyed by the fire at the Opera in 1783. For details of related works, see Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment by Anne L. Poulet, pp. 105-108.

RIdIM record id

1565