Portrait of Anne Robert Turgot, Baron of Laulne

1778

Jean Antoine Houdon (French, 1741–1828)

Economist Anne Robert Turgot aimed to stabilize France’s financial situation, which had deteriorated during Louis XV’s reign. Some of Turgot’s ideas later influenced economic reforms espoused during the French Revolution, including his efforts to abolish corvée, a system of intermittent forced labor imposed on the peasant class.

In this plaster portrait, Turgot wears a curly wig fashionable for men of the period. A lace jabot—the ruffled ornamentation at the front of the shirt—pokes through his simple vest.

Status: On View, Gallery 216
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Jean Antoine Houdon
Title: Portrait of Anne Robert Turgot, Baron of Laulne
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1778
Medium: Patinated plaster
Inscriptions: Inscribed: houdon 1778 (incised script, under surface of right shoulder); marked: ACADEM. ROYALE DE PEINTURE ET SCUPT. HOUDON SC (embosssed circular red wax seal on reverse of shaft)
Dimensions: 84.5 × 55.9 cm (33 1/4 × 22 in.)
Credit Line: Edward E. Ayer Endowment in memory of Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1962.820
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/15297/manifest.json

Supplément a la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, La Chronique des Arts, Gazette des Beaux-Arts 1153 (1965), p. 53, fig. 212.
Louis Reau, Houdon Sa vie et son oeuvre, II (Paris, 1964), p. 43, fig. 197.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 1963-64 (Chicago, 1964), p. 15, ill.
Art Institure of Chicago, Annual Report 1962-63 (Chicago, 1963), p. 15.
Etienne Ader, Paris, Succession de Monsieur Paul Gouvert, May 10, 1960, lot 68.
Georges Giacometti, La Vie et l’oeuvre de Houdon (Paris, 1929), p. 156, ill.

Paris, Galeries Buvelot, “Exposition du Centenaire de Houdon.” 5 June - 5 July 1928, p. 70, cat. 67.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, “Selected Works of 18th Century French Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago,” 24 January – 28 March, 1976, p. 116, cat. 197.

André Camoin, Paris, before 1928 [see Paris 1928 exh. cat. and Réau 1964]. Paul Gouvert, Paris, before 1960; sold, his estate sale, Etienne Ader, Paris, May 10, 1960, lot 68, to Edmond Courty, Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrénées. Private collection, France [letter from William Redford, Gerald Kerin, Ltd., May 14, 2002] before 1962; sold to Gerald Kerin, Ltd., London, before 1962; sold to the Art Institute, 1962.

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Portrait of Anne Robert Turgot, Baron of Laulne

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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