George Washington

Status

On view

Label Text

Modeled by hand, from the life, and likely fired in Mount Vernon’s bake oven, this extraordinarily naturalistic clay bust of George Washington is perhaps the most treasured object in the Mount Vernon collection. Its French artist, Jean-Antoine Houdon, called by Thomas Jefferson the ‘first statuary in the world’ was selected by Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin for a commission to create a life-size marble statue of George Washington for the Virginia State legislature. During his two-week stay at Mount Vernon in October 1785, Houdon sculpted this bust and left it with Washington, who placed it over one of the doors in his Study. Considered to be the most accurate likeness of George Washington, the bust has remained at Mount Vernon since its creation, one of the few original objects transferred to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association when the fledgling organization came into possession of the estate in 1860.

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Date1785

Artist Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741 - 1828)

Subject George Washington (American, 1732 - 1799)

Geography Made - United States

Medium/TechniqueLow-fired clay, plaster base

DimensionsHeight of bust only: 17 1/2 in Height of bust plus base: 22 1/2 in Width: 13 in at widest point Depth: 9 1/8 in Base: 5" H x 6 3/4 W x 18 1/2 Circumference

Credit LineTransferred to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association through the generosity of John Augustine Washington III, 1860

Object numberW-369

DescriptionBust portrait in the round of the head and chest of George Washington in low-fired clay, placed on a black socle. The work is truncated at the shoulders, and signed along the edge of the proper right shoulder. Washington’s head is slightly turned to the proper right and lifted, and his gaze is outward. A remarkable naturalism is conveyed through the inclusion of veins and diagonal folds of skin, particularly at the neck, and prominent bone structure, showing subcutaneous curves, especially evident at the collarbones. Washington’s age is intimated through lines on the forehead and crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes, as well as jowls below the chin. An indentation, in the shape of a thumbprint, appears beneath the chin. The earlobes are rather horizontal, and the ears small. The lined treatment of the hair creates a sense of volume and tactility, especially over the ears, and the marks of the artist’s tools are most evident at the sideburns. The queue is only partially wrapped, suggesting informality; the gathered hair below the queue is flattened and contains two small holes. There are slight indentations at the top of the head, likely from damage and repair, and intersecting lines of fracture and repair can be seen at the back of the head. Several small losses appear at the lower front edge of the work on both sides. Numerous air bubbles are visible, particularly in the chest.
SignedOn edge of proper right shoulder: “HOUDON F. 1785”
Published ReferencesJoseph Manca, George Washington's Eye: Landscape, Architecture and Design at Mount (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2011).

Jack Hinton, Encountering Genius: Houdon's Portraits of Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2010). (General Reference)

Catesby Leigh, “Our First President, in Three Dimensions,” The Wall Street Journal, February 19-20, 2011, c-13.

Maurie McGinnis and Louis P. Nelson, eds., Shaping the Body Politic: Art and Political Formation in Early America (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011), 128-161. (General Reference)

Hugh Howard, The Painter's Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art (New York: Bloomsburg Press, 2009), Plate 13, 90-106.

Carol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 120-121.

Guilhem Scherf, Houdon; Statues, Portraits, Sculptes (Paris: Musee du Louvre, 2007), 108-113.

Peter Henriques, Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington (Charlottesville: University Of Virginia Press, 2008).

Carrie Rebora Barratt and Ellen G. Miles, Gilbert Stuart (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 191-194. (General Reference)

Barbara J. Mitnick, ed. George Washington, American Symbol. (Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1999).

Anne L. Poulet et al., Jean-Antoine Houdon: Sculptor of the Enlightenment (Washington, D.C: National Gallery of Art in association with the University of Chicago Press, 2003), no. 47, 17-27, 263-268.

Tracy L. Kamerer and Scott W. Nolley, “Rediscovering an American Icon: Houdon’s Washington,” Colonial Williamsburg, 25, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).

Robert Stewart, “Portraits of George and Martha Washington,” Antiques (February 1989), 474-479.

Axelle de Gaigneron, “Washington eternisé par Houdon,” Connaissance Des Arts (January 1976).

H.H. Arnason, The Sculptures of Houdon (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975), 72-77.

H.H. Arnason, Sculpture by Houdon: A Loan Exhibition (Worcester, Massachusetts: The Worcester Art Museum, 1964), 86-91.

Louis Réau, Houdon (Paris: De Nobele, 1964).

Charles Seymour, “Houdon’s Washington at Mount Vernon Re-examined,” Gazette Des Beaux-Arts, VI Series, XXXV, No. 973. (March 1948): 137-158.

Frances Davis Whittemore, George Washington in Sculpture. (Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1933), 24.

R. Walton Moore, “General Washington and Houdon,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 41, No. 1 (Jan. 1933): 1-10.

Gustavus Eisen, Portraits of Washington (New York: Robert Hamilton, 1932), 3: 766-786.

John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, The Life Portraits of Washington and their Replicas (Lancaster, PA: Lancaster Press, 1931), 89-113.

Edward Biddle, George Washington: Jean-Antoine Houdon, Sculptor: Brief History of the Most Famous Sculpture Created of America’s Immortal Patriot Issued to Commemorate the Bicentennial of His Birth (Providence, RI: The Gorham Company, 1931).

Gilbert Chinard, ed., Houdon in America: A Collection of Documents in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1930).

Edward Alden Jewell, “Houdon Gave us the Real Washington,” New York Times, August 4, 1929, 11, 20.

George Giacometti, La Vie et L’Œuvre de Houdon (Paris: A. Camoin, 1929), 173-181(?)

Catherine Cabell Cox, Washington by Houdon (Richmond, VA: The Dietz Press, 1924).

W.A. Day, Houdon's Washington: An Address. (Atlantic City, New Jersey: The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, 1922).

Florence Ingersoll-Sinouse, “Houdon en Amerique,” La Revue de L'Art Encien et Moderne, 35 (January-June 1914), 279-298.

Edward Biddle, and Charles Henry Hart, Memoirs of the Life and Works of Jean Antoine Houdon, the Sculptor of Voltaire and Washington (Philadelphia, 1911), 207.

Michel Andre, Statue de Washington Par Houdon (Paris: 1918).

George Giacometti, Le Statuare Jean-Antoine Houdon et son Epoque, Vol. 2 (Paris: 1918-19), 20, 31, 34, 43, 376-387.

James Wilson Alexander MacDonald, “The Houdon Bust and Other Original Life Likenesses of George Washington,” Social Service (July 1902), 3-8.

James Wilson Alexander MacDonald, “Houdon’s Bust of Washington: An Account of the Original Life Cast-Bust of Washington,” The Art Collector 9, no. 20 (Oct. 15, 1899): 309-310.

W. W. Story, “The Mask of Washington,” Harpers Weekly, XXXI, no. 1575 (February 26, 1887).

Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Original Portraits of Washington (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1882), 13, 34, 148,153,155,157,164.

Benson Lossing, Mount Vernon and its Associations (New York: 1859), 221-229.

George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of George Washington (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1860), 517.

Jared Sparks, Correspondence of the American Revolution: being letters of eminent men to George Washington from the time of his taking command of the army to the end of his presidency, edited from the original manuscripts (Boston, MA: Little, 1853, IV), 83.

Mount Vernon's object research is ongoing and information about this object is subject to change. For information on image use and reproductions, click here.