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Frick-2 praticiens, stone-cutter trained by sculptor to hew out the work in the stone, these men often being quite capable sculptors who after they have reached their limit turn the marble over to the sculptor whose creation it is, to give the finishing touches with the chisel and the extent to these finishing touches depend upon the facility of the sculptor as a cutter. Houdon was very proficient in this as shown by your exquisitely beautiful bust of Madame la Contesse de Cayla, which fine work exhibits all of Houdon's great artistic capabilities and is both important and interesting for compassion with the bust of La Clairon. You will observe that the letter has none of the fineness of the former, none of the delicate modeling for which the sculptor was so noted. It is so coarse that it is hard to believe that he ever sanctioned it, especially the drapery around the body that throws the figure all out of proportion and harmony. The heaviness of the hair in unlike his felicitous manner of treating hair generally even when he was modeling the artificial coiffures of the period. He was an artist and treated everything that he undertook artistically. I can see nothing in this work that impresses me as the production of a great artist and Houdon as the greatest sculptor that France had produced. Therefore I cannot feel otherwise than if Houdon did model a bust of La Clairon from which this one has been cut in marble, that he had nothing to do with the work upon this one. I say "if Houdon did model a bust of La Clairon", for the reason that there is no record that I know that he did. No such bust appears in any of the lists of Houdon's work not even in the one he made himself a score of years after the date on this bust. Miss Williams shoed me the noted that came with the bust in which reference is made to the Memoirs and Reflections of Mlle Clairon (1797) but none to any mention of Houdon having made her bust, most likely incident to be noted. Neither does the suggestion that this bust was exhibited at the Salon of 1777 as "Portrait of Madame" without any name seem to have any merit, as the number preceding it is "Portrait of Monsieur" showing evidently that they were of husband and wife. To conclude it is my opinion that even if this bust is what might be called a work of Houdon it is such an unsatisfactory example of this great master that it is not of the quality worthy of preservation in collection of the superlative rank of