Jean-Antoine HOUDON (1741-1828) et son atelier

George Washington (1732-1799) Bust in plaster with terracotta patina. Original model created in 1785. Signed on the right shoulder "HOUDON F.". Bears the wax stamp (incomplete) of Houdon's workshop on the inside. H: 65 cm including breche marble pedestal, H: 14 cm (Minor accidents and restorations). Provenance : - Family of connoisseurs, Paris, probably before 1960. Related works: - Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington (1732-1799), original terracotta model, H: 32 cm, Mount Vernon, Virginia, George Washington Estate, Museum & Gardens, inv. W-369 ; - Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington (1732-1799), terracotta bust, H: 56 cm, Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. Louvre, inv. RF 350 ; - Jean-Antoine Houdon, George Washington (1732-1799), marble bust, H: 63 cm, Versailles, Musée National du Château, inv. MV 630 ; - Louis Léopold Boilly, L'atelier de Houdon, circa 1804, oil on canvas, H: 88 x W: 115 cm, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, inv. PE 63. Another example in plaster called "à l'antique avec le torse nu": - Jean-Antoine Houdon, Georges Washington (1732-1799), circa 1786, patinated plaster (originally), H: 54.5 cm, Boston, Athenaeum, inv. UH150 ; - Jean-Antoine Houdon, Georges Washington (1732-1799), stained plaster, H: 65 cm, n°59 of the exhibition catalog Centenaire de J.-A. Houdon, né à Versailles, Versailles, 1928 Related literature - Guilhem Scherf, Houdon, 1741-1828: statues, sculpted portraits..., Paris, Musée du Louvre Ed. Somogy éd. D'art, 2006 ; -Anne Poulet, Jean-Antoine Houdon. Sculptor of the Enlightenment, cat. exp. National Gallery of Art, May 4-September 7, 2003, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, November 4, 2003-January 25, 2004, Versailles, Musée et Domaine national du Château de Versailles, March 1-May 30, 2004, Washington, University of chicago Press, 2003, P: 263-268 ; - Louis Réau, Houdon: sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, F. de Nobele, 1964; - Paul Vitry, Centenaire de J.-A. Houdon, né à Versailles, cat. exp., Versailles, Bibliothèque de Versailles, 1928, P: 38. Building on his reputation as an illustrious portraitist, French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon was chosen in 1784 by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to create the full-length sculpture of George Washington commissioned by the Virginia Legislature. Although his model was a portrait painted by Charles Wilson Peale, the official portraitist of the hero of American Independence, Houdon nevertheless made the trip to the United States to work "from life" on this prestigious commission. The sculptor, accompanied by Benjamin Franklin and three assistants, set sail from Le Havre for Philadelphia in July 1785. During his stay in October of the same year with the general resident at Mount Vernon, he executed a live mask and a terracotta bust. The large marble sculpture of the Founding Father of the United States of America, delivered in 1796 and still in the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, as well as the various bust versions, all derive from these two works modeled at Mount Vernon during the winter of 1785. Houdon created three different versions of the statesman's bust. One in "antique" style, like the original terracotta, one in tunic and toga, and one in shirt and scarf. The bust presented here is one of the rare "antique" versions. It's difficult to say with any certainty how many busts in patinated plaster there were in this "à l'antique" version. On site, in 1785, Houdon produced a first plaster copy from a cast of the Mount Vernon terracotta, as a gift for Franklin. In 1786, the sculptor's assistants returned to France with the molds for the bust. In 1789, Jefferson was in Paris and purchased a proof from Houdon (with a terracotta patina, the bust is now stripped, bears the remains of the workshop's wax stamp and is preserved in Boston, Athenaeum, inv. UH150). A plaster copy, not located today, was part of the sale of the artist's studio collection in 1828, but its description does not allow us to know whether it was patinated or still clothed. Most surviving examples are late replicas of the toga model, many in terracotta or bronze. The reverse of our bust bears the wax stamp that Houdon had affixed to his busts, and which can be found on all the plaster casts and terracottas from his workshop offered for sale in 1795 and 1828. The work is signed below the shoulder in the still-fresh plaster with his beautiful signature in disjointed cursive characters. The impression is clean, lively and nervous, and the original patina a beautiful golden blond. The bust rests on its original pedestal, an elegant breche marble sign of the special attention paid to the work.