Michel de Montaigne at The Louvre, Paris

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This marble sculpture, displayed in the Salon in 1800, was created by Jean-Baptiste Stouf (Paris, 1742 - Charenton-le-Point, 1826). Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (28 February 1533 - 13 September 1592) is widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophers of the French Renaissance. He popularized the essay as a literary genre and his work is known for blending casual anecdotes and autobiography with insightful intellectual commentary. His massive collection, Essais, contains some of the most influential essays ever written. Montaigne's impact on writers around the world is undeniable, influencing figures such as René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Albert Hirschman, William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig, Eric Hoffer, Isaac Asimov, and possibly even William Shakespeare's later works. During his lifetime, Montaigne was more admired for his role as a statesman than as an author. His tendency to digress into personal stories and anecdotes was initially seen as detrimental to proper writing style rather than innovative. However, he would eventually come to be recognized as embodying the spirit of freely entertaining doubt that began to emerge during his time. He is most famously known for his skeptical remark, "What do I know?" This remarkably modern perspective makes him more accessible to readers today than any other author of the Renaissance. Many modern writers have found inspiration in Montaigne's work and continue to read him for his masterful balance of intellectual knowledge and personal storytelling.