Bronze Profile of George Washington attributed to Jean-Antoine Houdon

Bronze Profile of George Washington attributed to Jean-Antoine Houdon.
Bronze.
France.
ca. 1786-1800.
h. 7,3 in. ; w. 8,3 in.


Medallion in bronze depicting General George Washington, the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797, shown in profile with a grave, classical expression.

At least one similar medallion is known, held at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. With the same dimensions and the same gilt-bronze frame, it belongs unmistakably to the same cast and design, bequeathed in 1877 by Theodore Roosevelt Sr., the father of Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth President of the United States.
Little has been written about this medallion, dated circa 1800 in the Metropolitan Museum's catalog and attributed to a French bronzier.

The only certainty is that this portrait is in the Houdon style, to which all representations of Washington — copied, imitated, or largely inspired by the illustrious terracotta bust offered by Houdon to George Washington after his visit to Mount Vernon in 1785 — are attached in American art historiography, much like Greek statuary. During this visit, the French sculptor was able to create a portrait of the general from life.

After the Virginia Congress voted in 1784 for the erection of a monumental statue in honor of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, then the U.S. Ambassador to France, convinced Congress members and Washington himself to entrust the work to Houdon, whom Jefferson considered the greatest sculptor of his time. On July 20, 1785, Houdon joined his friend Benjamin Franklin, a former model and former U.S. Ambassador to France, in Le Havre, arriving in Philadelphia that September before meeting Washington at Mount Vernon.

The lineage between Houdon's bust and this medallion is almost undeniable, and a comparison of the medallion with other works also made after Houdon's bust further confirms this connection. However, it is more challenging to attribute the design and casting of this bronze directly to Houdon himself. The American historian and specialised in the life of George Washington, Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, mentions a medallion by Houdon possessed by Thomas Waters Griffith, envoyee of the United States in France, at Le Havre, and close correspondent of George Washington. It is also known that Houdon, whose fame largely rests on his marble statuary, practiced bronze casting as well, with at least two known medallions by him, including the double portrait of the Montgolfier brothers, a type that aligns with the George Washington medallion. Georges Giacometti, author of a three-volume monograph on Houdon that includes a comprehensive catalog, reproduced auction catalogs from Houdon’s lifetime citing unidentified and now-lost medallions attributed to him.

Sources

Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Original portraits of Washington, Boston, 1882 ; Charles Henry Hart, Memoirs of the Life and Works of Jean Antoine Houdon, the Sculptor of Voltaire and of Washington, Philadelphie, 1911 ; André Michel, « La statue de Washington par Houdon », in Séance publique annuelle des cinq Académies du vendredi 25 octobre 1918, Paris, 1918 ; Georges Giacometti, Le Statuaire Jean-Antoine Houdon et son époque, vol. I-III, Paris, 1919 ; Louis Réau, L’Art français aux États-Unis, Paris, 1926 ; Anne L. Poulet and al., Jean-Antoine Houdon. Sculptor of the Enlightenment, Chicago, 2003.