The sixth “Louvre Atlanta” exhibition, opening at the High Museum of Art on June 7, will feature highlights from the Louvre’s collection of sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon.

“Houdon at the Louvre: Masterworks of the Enlightenment” will be composed of about 20 objects portraying intellectual and political leaders.

The Louvre owns the largest and most important collection of works by Houdon, a major artist of the French Enlightenment period. The objects on view — including busts, a funerary monument, a medallion and a death allegory — are made in a variety of media such as marble, bronze, terra cotta and plaster.

One of the highlights of the show is a bust of Gen. George Washington, that is depicted on the U.S. quarter. For its creation and that of other related sculptures, Houdon traveled to Mount Vernon in 1785 to meet and study Washington in person. Houdon and three assistants spent two weeks in Virginia, where they took a mold of Washington’s face for accuracy and then returned to France to finish the piece. The final product resulted in what Washington’s family and contemporaries deemed the most lifelike depiction of him ever made.

Houdon was born in Versailles in 1741 and spent the majority of his life working Paris. He also served as a professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He died in 1828.

The High, 1280 Peachtree St., is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Thursday; and noon-4 p.m. on Sunday. For information, call (404) 733-4444.