The show includes approximately 20 sculptural works from the renowned artist portraying intellectual and political leaders, including American founding fathers George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, as well as famous busts of Enlightenment thinkers Denis Diderot and Voltaire and Houdon’s own wife and children

“Visitors to the Denver Art Museum have a great opportunity to reconnect with the history of this country through these rare works from Houdon, who was truly a master of his craft,” said Timothy Standring, Gates Foundation Curator of Painting and Sculpture. “These iconic portraits of some of the most significant leaders of nations and thought will give visitors a rare and in-depth look at one of the Louvre’s internationally treasured collections.”

Exhibition highlights include a bust of General George Washington, the nation’s first president. For the creation of the work, Houdon traveled to Mt. Vernon, Virginia, in 1785 to meet and study Washington in person. Houdon and three assistants spent two weeks in Virginia making a mold of Washington’s face and returned to France to complete the final bust. Family and contemporaries said the finished product was the best likeness of him ever created. The bust was actually the basis for the depiction of Washington on the U.S. quarter coin