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George Washington

Profile portrait of George Washington
Joseph Wright, 1783-1785
Plaster
George Washington
Profile portrait of George Washington
Joseph Wright, 1783-1785
Plaster
Profile portrait of George Washington Joseph Wright, 1783-1785 Plaster
Status
On view
Label Text

In August 1783, Congress authorized funding for an equestrian statue of George Washington in "Roman dress…his head encircled with a laurel wreath." They commissioned American painter Joseph Wright for a bust of the victorious Commander in Chief. Wright executed this cast bas-relief portrait as an offshoot of that project. Bust-length, profile portraits were extremely popular in the late eighteenth century. Based on ancient Greek and Roman examples, they appealed to neoclassical tastes. They also embodied the individualism and rationalism of the Enlightenment era by demanding close, objective observation for an accurate depiction.

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Date1783-1785
Sculptor (American, 1756 - 1793)
Subject (American, 1732 - 1799)
Geography Made - United States
DimensionsOverall (With frame): 20 in. x 16 7/8 in. x 1 3/8 in. (50.8 cm x 42.86 cm x 3.49 cm) Overall (Without frame): 16 3/4 in. x 13 3/4 in. (42.55 cm x 34.93 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, 1959
Object numberW-2261
DescriptionOval, bas-relief, bust-length, profile portrait of George Washington, facing the viewer's right and wearing a crown of laurel leaves; his hair tied in a queue. Unsigned.

Oval, gilded wood frame with central cove flanked by an outer round and an inner string of carved beads or pearls; coved sides.

Published ReferencesEllen McAllister Clark, "George Washington's Study." Antiques 135/2 (February 1989): 490-91, 493, pl. II.

Dunlap, William. History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States (1834): vol. 1, 313.

Eisen, Gustavus. "A Houdon Medallion." Antiques 17, no. 2 (February 1930): 122-25.

Eisen, Gustavus. Portraits of Washington. Vol. 3: 754.

Fabian, Monroe. Joseph Wright: American Artist, 1756-1793 (Washington, D.C.: NPG, 1985): 44-49, 109-10.

Hart, Charles Henry. "An Original Portrait of Dr. Franklin Painted by Joseph Wright." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 32 (1908): 320-34. See p. 331-32.

Johnston, Elizabeth Bryant. Original Portraits of Washington, Including Statues, Monuments, and Medals (Boston, 1882): 168.

Kimball, Fiske. "Joseph Wright and His Portraits of Washington: Sculpture," Antiques 17, no. 1 (January 1930): 34-39. See fig. 4, p. 36.

Middleton, Nike. "Three Generals Go Home." Charleston News & Courier, August 4, 1960.

Miles, Ellen G. Saint-Mémin and the Neoclassical Profile Portrait in America (Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery; Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), p. 49.

Morgan, John Hill and Mantle Fielding. The Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas (Philadelphia: 1931): 72, 81.

Stepp, John W. "Washington, Lee Relics Coming in Public View." Washington (D.C.) Star, nd. (1960?).

Stewart, Robert G. "Portraits of George and Martha Washington." Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 475.
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