613. Augustin Pajou (1730-1809),

French, Monument to Georges Louis Leclerc

de Buffon, 1776. Marble, height: 290 cm.

Musée national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris.

 

 

Like Clodion and Houdon, Augustin Pajou sculpted a series of portraits of the great French personalities who constituted the major figures of the Century of Enlightenment. The Monument to Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon, erected in 1776 in the Cabinet of Natural History, is conceived in the humanist spirit of the time. It pays tribute to Georges Louis-Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, who was the Keeper of the Jardin du Roi – now Jardin des Plantes (Paris). From an apothecary garden, he converted it into a research centre and museum, having planted numerous trees from many origins which were sent to him from around the world. The imposing marble monument is commensurate with the scope of the work left to science by Buffon. The thick coat that covers him makes his bearing even more imposing and powerful; the scientist becomes a hero in an antique manner. This work perfectly illustrates the concept of the neoclassical portrait: art had to give to the contemporary figure a nobility and an authority which would make him one of the great names of history.