Portrait of Giuseppe Balsamo (called Count Alessandro Cagliostro), marble bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon
photograph · 1786
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SUMMARY
Museum photograph of Jean-Antoine Houdon's marble portrait bust of Cagliostro, held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (62.18) and dated circa 1786 by the museum. The archive record names the sitter as Giuseppe Balsamo, called Count Alessandro Cagliostro, which is the basis for the named identification in the caption. License (public domain), date (circa 1786), creator (Houdon), and holding institution (LACMA) copied from the Wikimedia Commons file record on 2026-06-03. The Commons record links onward to the holding institution's catalogue record at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (collections.lacma.org/node/233639, accession 62.18). The bust is the definitive contemporary likeness of the practitioner and supplies the actor portrait for the case.
NOTES
Houdon’s circa-1786 marble bust is the canonical contemporary portrait of Cagliostro, modelled at the height of his European fame and now held by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The image is used as the practitioner portrait; the identification of the sitter follows the museum record, which names him as Giuseppe Balsamo, called Count Alessandro Cagliostro.