STATUE OF GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON
The most precious work of art in the United States is the life mask of George Washington by the noted French sculptor, Jean Antoine Houdon, who in 1785 was commissioned by the State of Virginia to execute a marble statue of George Washington. Houdon crossed the ocean, setting sail from Paris, France, on July 22 of that year for this purpose, in company with Benjamin Franklin. For 10 days he was a guest of General Washington at Mount Vernon, making studies and a cast. Having made his models, Houdon returned to France, reaching home on January 4, 1786. It took him two years to model and carve the statue, and the completed work arrived at Richmond in 1788. Eight years later the statue was installed in the rotunda of the State capitol, where it stands to-day. The statue represents Washington in the uniform of a Revolutionary officer; and, according to John Marshall, his intimate friend, this three-quarter view corresponds more to the exact likeness of Washington than any other portrait. A copy of this statue is in the Rotunda of the Capitol, the gift of the State of Virginia to the Nation. The life mask is at Mount Vernon.