Bust of the Astronomer and Mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace

JEAN-ANTOINE HOUDON (1741-1828)
France, 1804
plaster
We owe the collector Emile Peyre, one of the museum’s principal donors, the privilege of being able to show both Louis Boilly’s picture of the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon modelling Laplace’s bust in his studio and the bust itself. Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) was an astronomer and mathematician. His contribution to the development of celestial mechanics earned him his reputation as the French Newton.

inv. PE 846