Bust Of The Marquis De La Fayette By Jean-antoine Houdon

Bust of the Marquis de La Fayette in patinated bronze, resting on a white marble pedestal base (posterior).

Signed and dated under the right arm "Houdon an 1790".

19th century work after the original marble from 1790 preserved at the Palace of Versailles.

Total height: 72 cm.
Height of bronze: 56 cm.
Width: 52 cm.

La Fayette died at the age of 73 on May 20, 1834, and was one of the last actors of 1789. Laden with honors but controversial among his contemporaries, he was considered a hero of the American and French revolutions and a lifelong defender of freedoms, equality, and human rights. La Fayette was enlisted as a member of George Washington's staff and found in the latter a mentor and lifelong friend. On December 17, 1781, in gratitude for his victory at Yorktown, the Virginia legislature "unanimously resolved to make a bust of the Marquis de La Fayette in Paris, of the best marble employed for that purpose, and to present it to the Marquis" and that an agent "employ a suitable person in Paris to execute the above bust." Thomas Jefferson strongly influenced Houdon's selection for this prestigious commission. On July 14, 1790, Houdon received a commission from the National Guard of Paris for a marble portrait of La Fayette dressed in his National Guard uniform, artfully half-opened over a knotted cravat from which escapes a shirt collar, his head slightly turned to the right, the sitter wearing a roller wig.