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Bust

1768 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Voltaire was a highly influential philosopher, champion of tolerance and social justice, dramatist, poet and historian, and a key figure in the French Enlightenment.

The Rosset family of sculptors, from St Claude in Eastern France, often worked together and produced a number of busts and also statuettes of Voltaire. The father, Jean-Claude-Francois Joseph Rosset (generally known as Joseph; 1706-1786), was followed by sons Jacques-Joseph Rosset (1741-1826), François-Marie Rosset (1743-1824), and Claude-Antoine Rosset (1749-1818). Joseph is generally thought to have produced all the basic models of Voltaire for the family. François and Antoine worked closely with him and may have continued to reproduce these models.

This bust, signed ROSSET F. A ST. CLAUDE 1768, is ascribed to Joseph, and is one of the earliest known by him. It dates from twenty years after the earliest known sculpted portraits of Voltaire (for instance by Lemoyne, exhibited at the Salon in Paris, 1748), but predates the better-known busts of Voltaire by the great French sculptor Houdon.

There is a marble statuette of Voltaire in the National Museum, Stockholm, signed ROSSET F. A ST. CLAUDE 1769. A number of versions of this exist, some signed 'Rosset père et fils' (father and son) and others father. Voltaire was an extremely popular subject who complained at the number of times he was asked to sit for his portrait. The Rosset family played a significant role in the production and dissemination of his image in sculpture.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Carved marble
Brief description
Marble bust of Voltaire by Jean-Claude-Francois Joseph Rosset, French, 1768.
Physical description
Marble bust of Voltaire (mounted on Hopton wood stone base by 'A. W. Room' (V&A Conservation, formerly called Art Work Room).
Dimensions
  • Height: 7.875in
Marks and inscriptions
"ROSSET FT. A ST. CLAUDE 1768" (below, on the truncation)
Subject depicted
Summary
Voltaire was a highly influential philosopher, champion of tolerance and social justice, dramatist, poet and historian, and a key figure in the French Enlightenment.

The Rosset family of sculptors, from St Claude in Eastern France, often worked together and produced a number of busts and also statuettes of Voltaire. The father, Jean-Claude-Francois Joseph Rosset (generally known as Joseph; 1706-1786), was followed by sons Jacques-Joseph Rosset (1741-1826), François-Marie Rosset (1743-1824), and Claude-Antoine Rosset (1749-1818). Joseph is generally thought to have produced all the basic models of Voltaire for the family. François and Antoine worked closely with him and may have continued to reproduce these models.

This bust, signed ROSSET F. A ST. CLAUDE 1768, is ascribed to Joseph, and is one of the earliest known by him. It dates from twenty years after the earliest known sculpted portraits of Voltaire (for instance by Lemoyne, exhibited at the Salon in Paris, 1748), but predates the better-known busts of Voltaire by the great French sculptor Houdon.

There is a marble statuette of Voltaire in the National Museum, Stockholm, signed ROSSET F. A ST. CLAUDE 1769. A number of versions of this exist, some signed 'Rosset père et fils' (father and son) and others father. Voltaire was an extremely popular subject who complained at the number of times he was asked to sit for his portrait. The Rosset family played a significant role in the production and dissemination of his image in sculpture.
Bibliographic references
  • [Exhibition catalogue] Ivoires du Musée du Louvre 1480-1850 une Collection Inédite. Château-Musée de Dieppe, 2005. pp. 150-151.
  • Tardy. Les Ivoires. 1972-1977. pp. 195, 304-305.
  • Fischer, U. Une Famille de Sculpteurs et de Peintres Comtois, Les Rosset. Paris, 1919.
  • Fischer, U. Une Semaine au Paya des Rosset Artistes Comtois. Paris, 1925.
  • The Marquis de Villette. Journal de Paris. IV. 4. January. 1787.
  • Brune, Abbé Paul. Dictionnaire des Artistes et Ouvriers d'Art de la France, Franche-Comté. Paris, 1912. pp. 245-248.
  • Aubert, Jean and Dumas, Pierre. Catalogue des collections du Musée de Chambéry. Sculpture, XIe-XXe siècles. Chambéry, 1983. no. 83.
  • Scherf, Guilhem, 'L'iconographie sculptée de Voltaire' in Voltaire et l'Europe (exhibition catalogue), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, 1994.
Collection
Accession number
A.4-1919

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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