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Primary sourcePainting1775

Sketches of Voltaire at Age Eighty-One

Baron Dominique Vivant Denon · 1775

An etching by Baron Dominique Vivant Denon showing sketched studies of Voltaire's face at age eighty-one.

An etching sketching Voltaire's face from life at age eighty-one, near the end of his life.

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An etching of many small sketched heads of an elderly man in wigs and turbans, arranged across a pale sheet. A larger seated figure in a robe and cap appears at lower right, with a sketched figure at lower left.
Dominique Vivant Denon, Sketches of Voltaire at Age Eighty-One, 1775. Etching. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This etching was made in 1775 by Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, showing several small sketched studies of Voltaire's head drawn from life when Voltaire was eighty-one years old. It is held today at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a gift of Joseph Verner Reed in 1949.

Why it matters

Drawn near the end of Voltaire's life, these sketches capture his aged features from direct observation. As a study sheet rather than a finished formal portrait, it gives a more informal, exploratory view of how an artist worked to capture his likeness.

Look closer

  • Why might an artist make several small sketches of the same person's face instead of one finished portrait?
  • What does the informal nature of this sheet suggest about how it was used?
  • How does this image compare to the formal marble busts made of Voltaire around the same time?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Voltaire on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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