Hallowed Heritage: The Life of Virginia

by Dorothy Margaret Torpey

In 1785, Jean Antoine Houdon, a distinguished French sculptor, arrived at Mount Vernon to fulfill a commission of the Virginia State Legislature to make a statue of George Washington. After a year of personal observation of Washington at Mount Vernon and an analysis of Washington's facial characteristics, he created a life mask of Washington's face and made specific measurements of his body. Washington was 53 years old at this time and was six feet, two inches in height. Houdon then returned to France and proceeded to carve a Carrara marble statue of his subject. In 1796, the "Figure of George Washington" was placed beneath the dome of the rotunda of the State Capitol. This statue portrays Washington dressed in military uniform with small battle weapons and a plowshare located at his feet and with his left arm on a fasces (a bundle of rods enclosing an ax to symbolize power or authority). This particular pose is believed to have been selected by Houdon after he had observed Washington in a bargaining bout for a yoke of oxen. When Washington heard what he considered an outrageous price requested for the oxen, he exclaimed loudly his opinion of this proposal with his arm outstretched on a fence post. Houdon is said to have witnessed this incident and to have tried immediately to capture this pose of Washington's facial characteristics for his statue. A statue of LaFayette sculptured by Houdon is also included in one of the niches in the encircling wall of the rotunda section and a bust of Washington by Houdon is also located at Mount Vernon.

After Washington had become a member of the Masonic Lodge in Alexandria, the lodge members asked William Williams, a New Yorker, to paint Washington "as he is." The pastel portrait which he painted caused much controversy: some individuals considered it cruel and unartistic, others considered it realistic and the only true likeness of Washington. Williams had even included the scars on Washington's face which were remnants of a scarlet fever siege which Washington had endured. This portrait is in the Masonic Museum in the Masonic Temple Lodge in Alexandria. Williams also made a portrait of "Light Horse Harry" Lee, but this one did not cause controversy as did the one of Washington.

After the Revolutionary War had ended in America, the artists of Virginia and the other ex-colonies of England were influenced by classicism in art in Europe. Many of America's foremost artists of this time traveled to Europe to study this new art movement and were taught by Benjamin West who had set up a school in London. One of his best known students was Charles Willson Peale, who painted a full-length portrait of William Pitt. Peale came to Virginia and soon became well known for his individual and group portraits, silhouettes and miniatures of outstanding Virginians. His portraits of William Henry Harrison and of Lafayette are considered artistic gems. Peale's most famous portrait is his painting of George Washington, clothed in the military garb of a colonel.

Gilbert Stuart is usually considered the finest American painter of the post-Colonial period. Important Virginians whom he painted were George Washington, Colonel John Tayloe, John Randolph of Roanoke and James and Dolly Madison. Most of his paintings were done at Washington soon after it became the national capital city.

In 1807, a Frenchman, Julien F. de Saint-Memin, visited Richmond for approximately one year. He used a machine called a physionotrace which enabled him to make profile drawing in white chalk and in crayon. He acquired the technique of getting these drawings etched on copper plates which allowed him to make fine miniature engravings. One of his most famous art works is an etched view of the waterfront at Richmond.

Benjamin West Clinedinst, a native of Woodstock, is particularly remembered by Virginians for his great panorama painting of the Battle of New Market. Since he had received his education at the Virginia Military Institute, he had a very strong esprit de corps for this battle in which 257 cadets from V. M. I, helped General John Breckinridge at the cost of ten students killed and forty-seven wounded. Over the rostrum of the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hall at the Virginia Military Institute is a huge canvas painting by Clinedinst portraying a panorama of the charge of the cadet corps at this historic Battle of New Market. In addition to his portrait painting, Clinedinst furnished numerous book and magazine illustrations.

Sculpture—Sculpture did not really develop fully in Virginia until the Nineteenth Century. Alexander Galt of Norfolk was one of the earliest sculptors in this region. Although he died before his artistic ability had been fully developed, his memorable life-size white marble figure of Thomas Jefferson is located inside the Rotunda at the University of Virginia.

In 1865, Edward Virginius Valentine, a native of Richmond who had traveled and studied throughout Europe, came back to his home town. He created not only great sculptures but many unusual sculptures: the bronze figure of General Hugh Mercer in Fredericksburg, a bronze bust of Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury located in the Virginia State Library at Richmond, a bust of John Jasper, a Negro preacher, located in the Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Richmond, a marble statue of Thomas Jefferson in the lobby of a Richmond hotel, an ornate bronze statue of Jefferson Davis in a speaking position on Monument Avenue in Richmond and a bronze statue of "Stonewall" Jackson at the grave of "Stonewall" Jackson in the Lexington Presbyterian Cemetery. At Washington and Lee University located in Lexington is the Lee Memorial Chapel. Behind the altar in this chapel is an internationally famous white marble, recumbent "Figure of Lee" which Valentine created. Because of its recumbent position, symbolic of General Lee resting on a battlefield cot, this statue is considered most unique. For thirty years, Valentine used the original carriage house of the Mann S. Valentine House in Richmond as an art studio. When the Valentine House was acquired by the City of Richmond and was finally opened to the public for visitation, many of Valentine's original sculptures were grouped in the collection, including the plaster cast of his famous recumbent statue of Robert E. Lee.

Sir Moses Ezekiel, a sculptor and a soldier, was a native Virginian, but he studied and maintained his residence abroad for most of his life. However, there are many examples of his fine artistic talent in his native state. In the center of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia is a bronze figure of Thomas Jefferson placed upon a pedestal which is in the shape of the Liberty Bell; thus, the work of Sir Ezekiel is called the Liberty Bell Statue of Thomas Jefferson. Ezekiel has another bronze statue on the same campus known as the Statue of Homer which portrays a boy with a lyre sitting against the knee of Homer. Major John Warwick Daniel was a United States Senator from Virginia who was noted for his great oratorical ability. After he was severely wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness, he became a cripple and was nicknamed "The Lame Lion of Lynchburg." Ezekiel designed a statue located at Lynchburg in honor of Major Daniel which shows him seated and holding a crutch. Ezekiel, like Clinedinst, was a cadet at the Virginia Military Institute during the War between the States and was present at the Battle of New Market in which the V. M. I. Cadets participated. In front of the Nichols Engineering Hall at the Virginia Military Institute is a bronze seated figure of "Virginia Mourning Her Dead," known also as the "New Market Monument." Ezekiel is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, not far from the "Confederate Memorial" monument of bronze which he created.