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  Home>Stories>Antonio Canova Sculpts George Washington
      

      
      Search Art & Society Antonio Canova Sculpts George Washington min read
 Ashley Patton McCrindle Intern, National Gallery of Art
 “Old Canove of Rome,” Thomas Jefferson declared in 1816, when asked who should sculpt a portrait of George Washington for the North Carolina statehouse. And what should Washington be wearing? "The Roman [costume],” Jefferson advised, as “the artist, and every person of taste in Europe” would be for it and the American “boots & regimentals have a very puny effect.”
 A light-skinned man, woman, boy, and girl, and a brown-skinned man sit and stand around a table spread with papers and a map in this horizontal portrait. The light-skinned man sits on a red upholstered chair at the table to our left, and his body faces our right in profile. His legs are crossed, and he rests his right elbow, closer to us, on the back of the chair. He has a sloping, rounded nose, dark eyes, jowls along his jawline, and his closed mouth juts forward. His left arm rests on an open pamphlet on the table next to a sword with a delicate silver hilt. To our left, the young boy stands also looks to our right in profile, next to the older man's chair. The boy wears a dusky rose-pink suit with a white lacy collar. With his right hand, he pulls back a dark green cloth covering a globe on a wooden stand along the left edge of the canvas. The woman sits at the right side of the table, across from the man. She has dark eyes, full cheeks, a double chin, and her pale lips are closed. She wears a voluminous ivory satin gown and petticoat with a black lace shawl, and an ivory cap with a satin bow covers her gray hair. She points to a spot on a map on the table with a closed fan held in her right hand. The young girl, wearing a gauzy white dress with a pine-green sash at the waist, stands on the far side of the table near the woman, holding the curling edges of the map. Behind the women, the brown-skinned man wears a rust-orange and gray uniform, and stands with one hand tucked into his vest in the shadows at the edge of the composition. His features are indistinct but he faces our left in profile. The room has a gold-and-yellow checkerboard floor, and a red cloth drapes from columns frame the scene to each side. It is unclear whether a river view at the back of the room is seen through an open window or door, or if it is a large painting behind the people.
      
        
        
            
         	  Edward Savage, The Washington Family, 1789-1796, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.1.2
 Canova apparently agreed—his models in clay and plaster show him experimenting with different types of classical dress. In his first clay sketch, Washington wears a loose toga, his right shoulder bare and his left arm tucked into the cloth.
 Antonio Canova, George Washington, 1817, terracotta, Museo di Roma
 The plaster model shows the final costume: Washington in ancient armor to reflect his reputation as a general in the American Revolution.
 Antonio Canova, George Washington,c. 1817–1818, plaster, Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova, Possagno, photo by Luigi Spina
 But the inscription on the tablet Washington holds changed. In the plaster model, it reads, in Latin, “Law, Homeland, Liberty.” But in the final version it is in Italian: “George Washington / To the People of the United States / 1796 / Friends and Citizens.” Canova was quoting from Washington’s farewell address, published widely in 1796 after his two terms as president and opening with the words “Friends and fellow-citizens.”
 Romano Vio, after Antonio Canova, George Washington,1970, marble, North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh, via Wikimedia Commons
 Canova’s marble George Washingtonarrived in North Carolina on December 24, 1821, to a grand ceremony and a 24-gun salute. Sadly, a fire in 1831 destroyed the North Carolina statehouse and George Washingtonwith it. However, a finished modelwasstill preserved in Italy, and in 1970, North Carolina commissioned a marble copy. This 20th-century replacement was also greeted with fanfare and installed in the North Carolina Capitol, where it greets visitors to this day.
 June 11–October 9
							
							Canova: Sketching in Clay
						
							Rare clay models reveal the creative process behind some of the most iconic works in the history of sculpture.

								
								
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 Discover more stories
 Thinking in Clay: How Antonio Canova Made His Sculptures
						
							A close look at the sculptor’s clay models reveals his extraordinary working process . . . and his thumbprints.
 Who Is Antonio Canova? 10 Things to Know
						
							The inventive Italian artist is considered one of the most important sculptors of Europe’s revolutionary period.
 Ashley Patton McCrindle Intern, National Gallery of Art June 02, 2023








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