Houdon, Jean-Antoine, an eminent French sculptor, born of humble parentage at Versailles; at 20 he won the prix de Rome, and for 10 years studied with enthusiasm the early masters at Rome, where he produced his great statue of St. Bruno; he was elected in turn a member of the Academy and of the Institute, Paris, and in 1805 became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts; he was unrivalled in portraiture, and executed statues of Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Mirabeau, Washington, Napoleon, and others (1741‒1828).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Hottentots * Houghton, Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord