Portrait bust sculpture in terracotta of the composer, head and full shoulders, head turned left. After the marble bust by Guillaume Francin (1741-1830), brother-in law of Houdon, and the original plaster by Houdon of 1775

1864. Height 26.75" (68 cms). With the artist's name ("Francin") to truncation of left arm; integral base inscribed "Gluck."

Some wear and soiling; age-toned. In quite good condition overall.

Provenance
Catalogue of the Collection Musicale André Meyer (1961), Vol. I, p. 97 and plate 122. Auction catalogue of Pescheteau-Badin, Godeau et Leroy, Collection Musicale André Meyer et a divers, Paris, July 2, 1998, Lot 101, including color photograph. Auction catalogue of Bonhams London, The Roy Davids Collection, London 3 October, 2005, Lot 246, illustrated. Houdon: An Exhibition of Sculpture from the Collection of Michael Hall, esq. (truncated) Catalogue by Christine Defazio, Karl Fugelso, and Philip Mezzatesta. New York: Salander-O'Reilly Galleries, 1998 pp. 12-15. Poulet et al.: Jean-Antoine Houdon - Sculptor of the Enlightenment. Exhibition Catalogue. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2003, pp. 102-108. Exposition du Centenaire de Houdon, Paris: Galleries Buvelot, 1928, pp. 40-41. Vitry: Une Liste d'oeuvres de J.-A. Houdon, p. 9.

The present sculpture exists in two versions: the present, scarcer, version with full shoulders and partial torso and a second version with partial shoulders and reduced torso

"Following Houdon's plaster bust of Gluck shown in the Salon of 1775 ..., the marble was exhibited in 1777 ... and destroyed in the fire at the Paris Opera , 28-29 Oct. 1873. A faithful reproduction, ordered in 1798 by Alexandre Lenoir for the Musée des monuments français and executed in marble by Guillaume Francin, is in the Musée national du chateau de Versailles. The Louvre's plaster cast workshop distributed copies of this reproduction beginning in 1864." Poulet et al.: Jean-Antoine Houdon - Sculptor of the Enlightenment. Exhibition Catalogue. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2003, p. 107.

"The present bust is probably one of [the Louvre's copies]. ... It was in his depiction of Gluck that Houdon first showed the ravages of smallpox on a subject - it was a common affliction in eighteenth-century France but artists were expected to flatter their subjects in this respect at least." Bonhams catalogue

"Gluck was an artist, a great musician, and therefore must be given the attributes of a genius. His face was deeply pockmarked, and the sculptor used this fact to establish his theme. He clothed him in a heavy coat, whose texture is an overall pattern of slashed grooves, free and direct in their expressive impact. Here there was no attempt to stimulate the appearance of the actual material, but rather, in a manner almost Rodinesque, to bring out the quality of the clay. The open shirt, the unbuttoned vest, the short, disheveled hair, and the alert, titled pose of the head all emphasize the impact of genius." Arnason: The Sculptures of Houdon, p. 34. (Inventory #: 40417)