George Washington

Hiram Powers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Powers based this bust of George Washington (1732–1799) on the authoritative portrait the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon had modeled from life during his visit to America in 1785. The dignified image of the first president became the most successful of Powers’s portraits, with at least thirty-six life-size replicas carved. In some of them, the shoulders are covered in contemporary attire, while in others, such as this example, they are enveloped in a toga-like garment, a standard Neoclassical device. In the drape and the unincised eyeballs, Powers sought to link the bust with antique portraiture.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art