George Washington
Horatio Greenough (1805 to 1852) · 1832 to 1841
A colossal marble George Washington sits enthroned on the second floor, bare-chested, draped in a toga from the waist down, one arm raised to heaven and the other holding out a sheathed sword, hilt first, as if handing his power back to the people. Horatio Greenough carved it in Florence between 1832 and 1841 on a commission from Congress to mark the centenary of Washington's birth. He modelled it on an ancient description of the great statue of Zeus at Olympia, and he meant it to show the first president as a modern hero in the tradition of the ancient republics.
The face is taken from the famous life portrait by Jean-Antoine Houdon, so it is a good likeness. Everything else is ideal. Look at the throne, carved with small scenes of Apollo and the infant Hercules strangling serpents, symbols of the young nation, and at the small figures of an American Indian and Columbus at the sides. The sword is offered rather than brandished. The muscular torso and drapery are pure Greek revival, the fashion in Europe at the time and, as it turned out, badly suited to American taste.
When the statue arrived in Washington in 1841 it was placed in the Capitol Rotunda, where the floor could barely take its weight and where the sight of the father of the country half naked caused public ridicule. It was moved outside to the east lawn in 1843, sat there in the weather for sixty years, and came to the Smithsonian in 1908. It has been in this building since 1964, and on the second floor since the renovation. Whatever people thought in 1841, it is a magnificent piece of carving, and one of the largest statues ever made by an American sculptor.
Did You Know? Washingtonians were so embarrassed by the half-naked statue that it was moved out of the Capitol within two years.
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