Mount Vernon, the home of Washington . The Colonial Way 321 original, the UnfinishedPortrait, was never deliv-ered to Washington. Houdon, the French sculp-tor, labored conscientiouslyto get a life mask of Wash-ington, and finally clay gathered at MountVernon, combined with plas-ter of paris, he made a bust ofthe neck and head of Wash-ington. The Mount VernonLadies* Association succeededby great effort in preservingthis wonderful work ofart, after it had begun tocrumble. It is in a glass casein the banquet hall, andshows Washington as a manof very strong features—quitethe ideal t
Mount Vernon, the home of Washington . The Colonial Way 321 original, the UnfinishedPortrait, was never deliv-ered to Washington. Houdon, the French sculp-tor, labored conscientiouslyto get a life mask of Wash-ington, and finally clay gathered at MountVernon, combined with plas-ter of paris, he made a bust ofthe neck and head of Wash-ington. The Mount VernonLadies* Association succeededby great effort in preservingthis wonderful work ofart, after it had begun tocrumble. It is in a glass casein the banquet hall, andshows Washington as a manof very strong features—quitethe ideal type accepted by 33 those who have studied thevarying pictures and bustsof General Washington. Houdon returned to Eu-rope with his life mask, andafterwards there appearedstatues and busts purportingto have been made with thislife mask as the model. Oneof these is at Richmond, an-other in the National Capi-tol—but they are all untrueto the original, and to theStuart portraits. Other artists have sue-. Firedogs Presented to Washington by LaFayette 34 ceeded in creating sketchestypifying a fine-skinned un-wrinkled face, to which theyhave added a fluffily clothedbody, crowning the creationswith a bewigged head onwhich a number five hatwould fit with nicety. In thepaintings and statues in theHall of Fame at the NationalCapitol, in the Boston Pub-lic Library and the City Hallof New York, I have seenthese same elaborate misrep-resentations. Unfortunately some ofthis work is credited to theHoudon life mask, but goto Mount Vernon and seefor yourself and you will beconvinced that the great 35]
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidmountvernonh, bookyear1915
