sculptural portrait of George Washington put up for auction
03/07/2009, 16:39:09
Terracotta bust of the first U.S. president, George Washington, executed by the French painter and sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1787, exhibited at the July auction house Sotheby's in London. Agency The Associated Press reports that the portrait is estimated at 300 thousand pounds (490 thousand dollars).
Houdon came specially from France to America to meet with Washington and write a series of sketches for a future equestrian statue of the commander and hero of the War of Independence (Washington was elected president in 1789-m). Houdon Assembly of Virginia, ordered the statue, shared Thomas Jefferson, acquainted with the sculptor and his works in Paris. By this time the account Houdon was already several well-known portraits - Rousseau, Voltaire, Moliere, Diderot, Benjamin Franklin.
By sketches and lifetime mask Houdon carved several small sculptural portraits, statues of the draft horse was buried because of its high cost.
Lifetime portraits of Washington are very much appreciated. Absolute value of the record was set in 2006 at Christie's auction in New York: written in 1779 painting by Charles Wilson Saw gone under the hammer for 21.3 million dollars.
http://lenta.ru/news/2009/07/03/bust/