Background.

The prominence of sculpture among the ancient Greeks and Romans made sculpture appealing as an ideal way to commemorate the achievements of American Revolutionary heroes. Yet America was slow to develop sculptors, and European artists filled the demand for sculpture well into the nineteenth century. In 1784 the Virginia legislature voted to commission a marble statue of George Washington for the state capitol and appointed Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson to choose an artist. They recommended Jean-Antoine Houdon, a leading French sculptor, whose works included portrait busts of other prominent Americans, including themselves. Houdon initially planned to execute the commission in Paris, using Charles Willson Peale's portrait of Washington as a model. Although Peale sent Houdon the portrait, Houdon ended up coming to the United States to take the bust of Washington from life. He worked with Washington at Mount Vernon...