This bust of George Washington, expected to fetch at least $490,000, was sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon of France.
(Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)
Sotheby’s to auction rare bust of Washington
This bust of George Washington, expected to fetch at least $490,000, was sculpted by Jean-Antoine Houdon of France.
(Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)
Associated Press
/
July 4, 2009
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LONDON - Art lovers looking for a way to mark Independence Day may want to consider a rare bust of George Washington being auctioned by Sotheby’s in London.
But this is not a July Fourth knickknack.
Specialists believe it will fetch more than $490,000 when it is auctioned July 9. Until then it will be on display at Sotheby’s.
The bust of America’s first president comes from the workshop of Jean-Antoine Houdon, a French sculptor who was commissioned by Congress and the Virginia Legislature to produce a life-size sculpture of Washington.
Houdon traveled from France to Philadelphia in 1787 to make a series of studies of Washington, then produced a small series of sculptures when he returned to his Paris studio.
Carolyn Miner, Sotheby’s specialist, called it a “superb rendition of George Washington.’’
Other examples of Houdon’s Washington series are on display at the Louvre in Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
