The Travel of Houdon in Virginia

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon is the specialist of life size busts of his most illustrious contemporaries. Among them, the ambassador of the United States of America in France, Benjamin Franklin.

Thomas Jefferson, who was Franklin's successor, also committed in the cultural life of Paris. He ordered to Houdon an equestrian statue of Washington, the hero of the War of Independence. Very honored, the artist decided he can not work from drawings and crossed the Atlantic in 1785. He spent two and a half weeks with George Washington at Mount Vernon.

Back to his workshop in Paris, Houdon made several busts of Washington. Sotheby's sells on July 9 in London a terracotta dated 1787, estimated £ 300 K. The future president is represented in the antique, with a tunic and a toga. As always in the works of Houdon, the model is shown very realistically, without complacency, which provides a striking contrast with the official portraits.

To conclude, note that the equestrian project was abandoned in favor of a marble showing a standing Washington, built in 1792 in the Capitol in Richmond.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The bust of Washington was sold £ 300 K, but this price includes the premium, as always for the results published by this auction house. This likeness of one of the two most popular US presidents at auction (the other is Lincoln) did not generate a real enthusiasm.