HOUDON'S 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 W. A. DAY
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 [A. 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 7 <i 
 
 O
 
 HOUDON'S 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 by 
 
 W. A. DAY 
 
 before the eleventh annual convention of the 
 General Agency Association 
 
 of 
 
 THE EQUITABLE LIFE 
 ASSURANCE SOCIETY 
 
 of the UNITED STATES 
 
 Atlantic City 
 
 May 5-6 
 
 1922
 
 Copyright, 1922, by 
 W. A. Day
 
 Ne 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE following address was delivered before the eleventh 
 annual convention of the General Agency Association 
 of the Equitable held at Atlantic City on May 5 and 6, 1922. 
 
 Insofar as the insurance on Houdon's life is concerned 
 which I believe to have been the first business insurance 
 written in American history, my attention was drawn to it 
 by reading certain letters of Thomas Jefferson. I subse- 
 quently searched further and in the archives of the State 
 Department in Washington found more material which, for 
 some unknown reasons, had largely been omitted from the 
 printed correspondence of John Adams. 
 
 In an address at the Tenth Meeting of the General 
 Agency Association I mentioned this insurance, intending 
 at the time to enlarge upon it at some future date. A number 
 of matters intervened and it was only this year that I was 
 able to present such further material as I had been able to 
 find. In the meantime a number of gentlemen asked 
 me for the material which I had used in my first address 
 and that material was, with my consent, used by them. I 
 have now added considerable data not contained in the first 
 address and have in the following pages set down what I was 
 able to find regarding Houdon's visit to this country and the 
 history of the Washington Statue in Richmond. 
 
 The material for the study of this is meager. Houdon 
 himself has left no records as far as I am able to discover, 
 and his contemporaries on this side did not greatly enlarge 
 upon his visit. Some of the works which may contain 
 greater details were not accessible to me; what I have written 
 is at best a modest contribution to the history of Houdon 
 and Washington. It lays no claim, however slight, to 
 completeness and was written largely for my own enjoyment. 
 I present it, therefore, as the result of an amateur interest 
 and as nothing further. 
 
 W.A.D. 
 
 550322
 
 HERE are episodes in the lives of 
 great men which are negligible to 
 the philosophical historian; but 
 which, however, may possess the more 
 charm for the amateur. They cast side- 
 lights upon the figures of history; they 
 infuse warmth into the cold monumental 
 conception of greatness; but they do more 
 than this, for episodes in the lives of national 
 heroes are of the very stuff of the nation 
 itself, so completely incorporated in its great 
 men, especially during the great crises 
 which bring them forth. Democracies are 
 peculiarly alive in their heroes; France is 
 Louis XI, and Richelieu and Danton and 
 Napoleon; England is Cromwell and 
 Chatham, Nelson and Wellington; and the 
 American Revolution lives most pristinely 
 in Washington. 
 
 The episode of which I shall speak to 
 you is an episode in Washington's life. To 
 be sure his role in it is passive and distant 
 and yet it is because of the events of which 
 I shall speak that we know anything defi- 
 nite of his physical appearance. His statue 
 
 [71
 
 by Houdon and the measurements the 
 sculptor took are the only accurate and 
 trustworthy records we have of the gen- 
 eral physical aspect of the "father of his 
 country." 
 
 Beyond the general interest we all take 
 in everything relating to the founders of 
 our Republic, this tale has an aspect pecu- 
 liarly interesting to us — life insurance played 
 a prominent part in this historical episode; 
 it enabled the impoverished State of Vir- 
 ginia to employ the greatest living sculptor, 
 and one of the greatest portrait sculp- 
 tors of all time, to make an image of 
 Virginia's greatest son. At that compara- 
 tively early date in its development, life 
 insurance provided in simple form what it 
 provides a thousand-fold more elaborately 
 today— PROTECT I ON . 
 
 On June 22, 1784, the General As- 
 sembly of Virginia passed a resolution call- 
 ing upon Governor Harrison to take steps 
 for the procuring of a statue of General 
 Washington "to be of the finest marble and 
 of the best workmanship. " Art had not fiour- 
 
 [81
 
 ished in the frontier communities, which all 
 the States still were; there were many re- 
 spectable craftsmen; there were no sculp- 
 tors. Whatever the merits of craftsman- 
 ship, they would have proved wholly un- 
 availing in a task which required the greatest 
 of art in conception and execution. Such 
 a sculptor could then be found only in 
 France where art flourished under the pa- 
 tronage of a lavish court. Moreover, the 
 State of Virginia already knew what an ar- 
 tist France could produce, for it possessed a 
 bust of Lafayette by Houdon, a copy of 
 the bust it had itself presented to the Mu- 
 nicipality of Paris. Hence it was to France 
 that Virginia turned and to the same artist 
 who had already carried out work for the 
 Commonwealth to honor a great friend. 
 
 Jean Antoine Houdon was born in 1741 
 and was therefore in the full vigor of life 
 and achievement. He was certainly at the 
 height of his glory, a glory undimmed by 
 the progress of time, for but lately he has 
 been ranked as one of the greatest of por- 
 trait sculptors by no less a man than 
 
 191
 
 Rodin. He had at this time completed his 
 greatest work, to which Rodin refers, his 
 bust of Voltaire; he had made an equestrian 
 statue of Louis XV, and was overwhelmed 
 by commissions for kings and princes. He 
 had, in 1778, made a bust of Franklin and 
 in 1780 one of Admiral John Paul Jones, 
 who, being a man of much vanity, had sent 
 a number of casts to friends, all but one of 
 which are now lost. The bust of Franklin 
 had been a remarkable work. Houdon's 
 desire for accuracy in portraiture had caused 
 it to be magnificent as realistic sculpture, 
 but somewhat disappointing to Franklin's 
 friends, who found in it certain traits not 
 mentioned by Poor Richard in his famous 
 autobiography. But the rugged protago- 
 nist of civic and private virtue who had been 
 somewhat "cruelly" portrayed, bore Houdon 
 no grudge. When Harrison wrote Jefferson 
 to find the best sculptor in all Europe, 
 Franklin joined him in recommending 
 Houdon. Harrison had proposed that the 
 statue be made from a life-sized drawing of 
 Washington by Charles Willson Peale (price 
 30 guineas). Jefferson, who together with 
 
 [10]
 
 Franklin had approached Houdon and found 
 him willing, wrote Harrison on January 12, 
 1785, as follows: 
 
 "Statues are made every day from portraits, 
 but if the person be living, they are always 
 condemned by those who know him, for want 
 of resemblance. " 
 
 Willing Houdon was; he fully appreciated 
 the honor of the choice of himself as sculp- 
 tor, but he would not do what Harrison 
 wanted; he would make the statue only 
 after he had personally measured his sub- 
 ject and had made a clay model from which 
 he could in three years complete the work. 
 He told Jefferson that he had with diffi- 
 culty escaped a commission to make a 
 statue of Catharine of Russia in order to 
 devote himself to the task for which Jeffer- 
 son wanted him. But Houdon (you will 
 find confirmation of this in the pictures of 
 him) did not lack the thrifty characteristics 
 of his race; he had his eye on a bigger busi- 
 ness than the State of Virginia's commis- 
 sion. On July 12, 1785, Jefferson wrote the 
 Virginia delegation in Congress, as follows : 
 
 I 111
 
 "The most important object with him is 
 to be employed to make General Washington's 
 equestrian statue for Congress. Nothing but 
 the expectation of this could have engaged him 
 to have undertaken the voyage, as the pedes- 
 trian statue for Virginia will not make it worth 
 the business he loses by absenting himself." 
 
 The equestrian statue was never made; its 
 cost would have been 600,000 livres or 
 £24,000 if it were to be completed in 
 ten years and 1,000,000 Hvres (£40,000) 
 if it were to be completed in eight years. 
 This was a sum wholly beyond the means 
 of the United States to pay, for they were 
 extremely impoverished by the war of the 
 Revolution and in a most unsound and 
 dangerous financial condition. But Houdon 
 never abandoned hope and offered his serv- 
 ices again as late as March 26, 1804, as 
 unavailingly as before. 
 
 It was thus full of hope for greater 
 commissions that he agreed to go to Amer- 
 ica to model Washington and from this 
 model to make a pedestrian statue. It was 
 originally hoped that Houdon would sail 
 
 [12]
 
 early in the year 1785, but his departure 
 dragged on until July. A letter from Jef- 
 ferson to Patrick Henry, then Governor of 
 Virginia, written on July 15, 17S5, gives the 
 terms of the contract; Houdon was to re- 
 ceive 25,000 livres, the equivalent of 1,000 
 English guineas, besides his expenses for the 
 journey, which were expected to be about 
 4,000 or 5,000 livres. But an important 
 provision in this contract was irksome and 
 was agreed upon only because Houdon 
 made it "a sine qua non without which all 
 would have been off." This was the pro- 
 vision that in the event of his, Houdon's, 
 death during this journey, the State of Vir- 
 ginia would pay his family 10,000 livres, or 
 about 400 guineas. To quote Jeff er son : 
 
 "This latter proposition was disagreeable 
 to us, but he has a father, mother and sister 
 who have no other resource but in his labors 
 and he is himself one of the best of men." 
 
 No wonder that Jefferson found this propo- 
 sition irksome. The state of sea travel was 
 uncertain, the dangers of it were great. An 
 accident would have cost Virginia dear for 
 
 [13 1
 
 we find that at this time they had consider- 
 able trouble finding the 8,333-^^ livres which 
 was to be paid down as an advance pay- 
 ment with which to procure the marble 
 from Italy. But "the best of men" insisted. 
 He also had read Rousseau and was as full 
 of sentiment as was Jefferson whose letters 
 regarding Houdon are occasionally delight- 
 fully ingenuous; he was, however, a French- 
 man ; he was m or e artisan than artist in senti- 
 ment and he was determined to have his 
 family profit by his death, should such an 
 eventuality befall the thrifty head of this 
 touching household. 
 
 JefTerson's mind now turned to the 
 covering of the risk by insurance placed in 
 London upon the life of Houdon. This had 
 not been suggested by Houdon who left the 
 matter of how to provide the funds with 
 which his family were to be paid to those 
 who undertook to pay them. Jefferson's 
 practical mind hit upon this scheme of pro- 
 tecting the State against loss by Houdon's 
 death while upon his journey. He wrote 
 from Paris, where he resided as minister to 
 
 114]
 
 the Court of France, to Adams at London 
 under date of July 7, 1785, as follows: 
 
 "Monsieur Houdon has agreed to go to 
 America to take the figure of General Wash- 
 ington. In case of his death, between his 
 departure from Paris and his return to it, 
 we may lose twenty thousand livres. I ask 
 the favor of you to enquire what it will cost 
 to ensure that sum, on his life, in London, 
 and to give me as early an answer as possible, 
 that I may order the insurance if I think the 
 terms easy enough. He is, I believe, between 
 thirty and thirty-five years of age, healthy 
 enough, and will be absent about six months. " 
 
 As the sum guaranteed Houdon by the con- 
 tract in case of his death was only 10,000 livres 
 the loss of 20,000 livres of which Jefferson 
 speaks must have included the first pay- 
 ment already made of 8,333 livres which 
 would have been lost should Houdon not 
 have lived to make the bust and should 
 the marble have been purchased without 
 being used by Houdon. Houdon was 
 to sail on the 28th of July. An answer 
 from Adams therefore was of importance 
 if the assurance was to be effected 
 
 [15 1
 
 before Houdon incurred the risk of the 
 voyage. Houdon did sail on July 28th 
 from LeHavre in company of Benjamin 
 Franklin and, as Jefferson wrote to Wash- 
 ington on July 10, 1785, "one or two subor- 
 dinate workmen, who" as the discoverer that 
 all men are created equal ingenuously as- 
 sured Washington "of course, will associate 
 with their own class." On his departure 
 Houdon lost his clothes, or rather left them 
 behind him, and subsequent correspondence 
 regarding his expenses mentions the pur- 
 chase of new shirts, etc., Houdon having 
 but four on the voyage. 
 
 Let us now leave Houdon and follow 
 the course of the insurance on his life which 
 had been proposed by Jefferson who had 
 not heard from Adams. On August 4th 
 Adams wrote the following letter : 
 
 Grosvenor Square, August 4, 1785. 
 *'Houdon's life may be insured for five per 
 cent, two for the Life and three for the Voyage. 
 I mentioned it at Table with several mer- 
 chants; they all agreed that it would not be 
 done for less. But Dr. Price, who was present. 
 
 [16]
 
 undertook to enquire and inform me. His 
 answer is, that it may be done at an office 
 in Hackney for five per cent. He cannot 
 yet say for less, but will endeavor to reduce 
 it a little. You may write to the Dr. to get 
 it done and he will reduce it, if possible." 
 
 It appears from this letter that Adams was 
 not particularly interested in procuring this 
 insurance; for a number of large insurance 
 companies were then in existence and he 
 could, without serious inconvenience, have 
 answered Jefferson sooner. 
 
 On August loth Jefferson replied to 
 Adams and asked him to effect the insur- 
 ance. His letter, which follows, is interest- 
 ing. To cover the risk completely the life 
 of Houdon should have been insured not 
 only for the 10,000 livres tournois covering 
 the sum to be paid to his heirs but also for 
 the 8333. livres tournois which had been 
 paid and which would have been uselessly 
 expended, had he died and, in addition, the 
 travelling expenses should have been in- 
 cluded, as they also would have been vainly 
 spent in the event of his death. But the 
 
 [17 1
 
 State was probably too poor and we see that 
 the sum covered was comparatively small. 
 
 *' I will pray you to insure Houdon's life 
 from the 27th of last month till his return to 
 Paris. As he was to stay in America a month 
 or two he will probably be about six months; 
 but the three per cent for the voyage being 
 once paid, I suppose they will insure his life 
 by the month, whether the absence be longer 
 or shorter. The sum to be insured is 15,000 
 livres tournois. If it be not necessary to pay 
 the money immediately there is a prospect of 
 the exchange becoming more favorable. But 
 whenever it is necessary be so good as to pro- 
 cure it by sending a draft on Mr. Grand, 
 which I shall take care will be honored." 
 
 To this letter there was no reply. Adams 
 presumably put Jefferson's letter aside and 
 forgot it. On September 24th Jefferson be- 
 came anxious. He could not have heard 
 of the arrival or non- arrival of Houdon and 
 Franklin by this time, but he justly feared 
 that Adams had jeopardized the whole busi- 
 ness. (Houdon had arrived safely in Phila- 
 delphia on September 14, 1785, which, of 
 course, was not yet known in Paris and 
 
 [18]
 
 London.) Jefferson now wrote Adams re- 
 questing the immediate effecting of the 
 insurance : 
 
 "Is insurance made on Houdon's life? I 
 am uneasy about it, lest we should hear of 
 any accident. As yet there is no reason to 
 doubt their safe passage. If the insurance 
 is not made, I will pray you to have it done 
 immediately." 
 
 And eleven days later Adams wrote him a 
 letter containing an explanation but hardly 
 an excuse (on October 5, 1785, when 
 Houdon had already been three days at 
 Mt. Vernon.) From this letter it appears 
 that the fault was that of Dr. Price and 
 that immediate steps, unless the doctor's 
 memory should again fail him, would be 
 taken to place the insurance. 
 
 "Dr. Price called upon me this morning but 
 had unfortunately wholly forgot the insurance 
 on Houdon's life, but I gave him an extract 
 of your letter to me, and promised to pay the 
 money for the premium at any moment. I am 
 afraid that certificates of Houdon's state of 
 health will be required, and the noise of Al- 
 
 [19]
 
 gerine captures may startle the insurers. The 
 Doctor (Price), however, will get it done if he 
 can, and as low as possible." 
 
 In this we get a brief insight into the sound- 
 ness of British insurance methods even then 
 and also into the curious delay on the part 
 of Adams; and the light is thrown upon him, 
 who was in this case, from what motives 
 we know not, certainly negligent and dis- 
 obliging. Fortunately the insurance was 
 never needed; had it been needed the loss 
 would have fallen hard upon Virginia be- 
 cause of the negligence of Adams or per- 
 haps Dr. Price. 
 
 The insurance was, however, effected 
 only on the 12th of October, 1785, as ex- 
 plained by a letter of Adams to Jefferson 
 dated October 24th, more than three months 
 after Houdon's departure. The risk which 
 Virginia had meant to insure she had to 
 carry herself for those three months. The 
 English underwriters refused to "look back" 
 and would insure only for the future. It 
 may seem curious to us that they should 
 so refuse, but news travelled slowly and had 
 
 [201
 
 they 'iooked back" the news of the in- 
 sured's death might have been travelling 
 just as the insurance was being effected. 
 
 "The insurance is made upon Houdon's 
 life for six months from the 12th of October. 
 I have paid Thirty-two Pounds, eleven shil- 
 lings Premium and charges, which you will 
 please give me credit for. I could not persuade 
 them to look back, as they say they never 
 ensure but for the future and from the date 
 of the Policy. I suppose it will be safest to 
 keep the receipt and policy here, for fear of 
 accidents." 
 
 It can only be hoped that Adams took more 
 interest in the safe keeping of the policy 
 than he had in the effecting of the insur- 
 ance. This ends the insurance phase of the 
 episode. It is interesting in showing Jeffer- 
 son's acute appreciation of the principle of 
 insurance. 
 
 Houdon had arrived safely with his 
 four shirts and Dr. Franklin in Philadel- 
 phia and had gone to Mt. Vernon where he 
 arrived on October id, at eleven o'clock at 
 night, escorted by a French gentleman from 
 
 [211
 
 Alexandria. We hope he had suffered from 
 no impositions such as Jefferson, in the in- 
 terest of thrift and the expense account, 
 had hoped would be spared him. He set to 
 work and began an exhaustive series of 
 measurements of Washington. At this 
 point history becomes singularly silent. 
 There are no records on the part of Houdon 
 of his American visit; only a few entries 
 without detail appear in Washington's 
 Diary. On hearing of Houdon's arrival 
 Washington wrote him : 
 
 "By a letter, which I have lately had the 
 honor to receive from Dr. Franklin, at Phila- 
 delphia, I am informed of your arrival at that 
 place. Many letters from very respectable 
 characters in France, as well as the Doctor's, 
 inform me of the occasion, for which, though 
 the case is not of my seeking, I feel the most 
 agreeable and grateful sensations. I wish the 
 object of your mission had been more worthy 
 of the masterly genius of the first statuary in 
 Europe; for thus you are represented to me. It 
 will give me pleasure. Sir, to welcome you to 
 the seat of my retirement, and whatever I 
 have or can procure, that is necessary to your 
 purposes, or convenient and agreeable to your 
 
 [22]
 
 wishes, you must freely command, as inclina- 
 tion to oblige you will be among the last things 
 in which I shall be found deficient, either on 
 your arrival or during your stay." (Sep- 
 tember 26, 1785.) 
 
 It was an austere letter and somewhat un- 
 gracious in its insistence on the case not 
 being of his seeking. The rest of the letter 
 is polite but distant and Houdon may have 
 been chilled by it. It has been said that 
 he was not treated with great consideration 
 or with the consideration he expected by 
 Washington and the Americans. Certainly 
 he made no impression on Washington, 
 whose entries in his diary are meagre. Per- 
 haps Houdon was disappointed in not ob- 
 taining the commission for the equestrian 
 statue — a commission far beyond the 
 means of Congress to remunerate. At all 
 events we know little of his stay at Mt. 
 Vernon or in this country. 
 
 He worked assiduously and on October 
 13th he made a life mask of Washington 
 which is now in the possession of J. P. 
 Morgan, Esq. He also made detailed meas- 
 
 123 1
 
 urements for his great work and left Mt. 
 Vernon on October 14th, returning to France 
 where he arrived before Christmas, 1785. 
 
 On December 16, 1786, he showed a 
 bust in Paris of Washington which, how- 
 ever, is not what is commonly known as 
 the Houdon Bust ; there were several busts 
 all rather similar made by him ; this bust 
 was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1787. 
 The statue itself should have been com- 
 pleted in 1789 at the latest, but it did not 
 reach its destination until 1796 when it was 
 set up in the Capitol at Richmond. This 
 has been variously attributed to the Revo- 
 lutionary disturbances in France, but it is 
 not the likely reason. The Revolution during 
 its first two years did not greatly affect the 
 average citizen ; even during the Terror, life 
 continued much as before. The truth of 
 the matter is that Houdon would not de- 
 liver the statue because he was not paid. 
 Non-payment does not seem a vice to poor 
 debtors, and the United States collectively 
 and individually were poor. The archives 
 of Virginia contain a voluminous corre- 
 
 [241
 
 •^.jp^ssim^?'^
 
 spondence with Houdon regarding the pay- 
 ments, the last of which was not made 
 until 1793 when Houdon, who had lost the 
 patronage of the great, when the great lost 
 their heads in more senses than one, was in 
 very indigent circumstances. In fact, the 
 last payment of 2,800 francs was not made 
 until 1803 when Houdon received this sum 
 in settlement of his loss on assignats in 
 which he had been paid — and gave final re- 
 ceipt for the whole transaction. It has been 
 said that Houdon's reward lay in the grati- 
 tude of American posterity — again the "best 
 of men" fails us; again he thriftily insists on 
 present payment. But at. last he was paid ; 
 the chapter closes with his last pathetic offer 
 in 1804, mentioned above, to make an eques- 
 trian statue for which he exhibited a model 
 about one foot high in the Salon of 1793. 
 A German traveler now unknown saw it in 
 his studio — all trace of it is lost. And 
 America lost an image which might have 
 been an equal to the Colleoni at Venice by 
 Verrocchio and Donatello's great Gatta- 
 m ela ta of Padua . The statue reached Rich- 
 mond finally and was set up without cere- 
 
 [25]
 
 J 
 
 mony on May 14, 1796. The fact that the 
 State House was not completed before then 
 prevented its earlier delivery and erection. 
 It is a life-size statue of Washington, six feet 
 two inches high, and stands on a pedestal 
 five feet high. Originally the pedestal was 
 to have borne the following inscription : 
 
 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE 
 CONGRESS OF VIRGINIA 
 
 HAVE CAUSED THIS STATUE TO BE 
 
 ERECTED AS A MONUMENT OF 
 
 AFFECTION AND GRATITUDE 
 
 TO GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 WHO 
 
 UNITING TO THE ENDOWMENTS OF 
 
 THE HERO THE VIRTUES OF 
 
 THE PATRIOT 
 
 AND EXERCISING BOTH IN ESTAB- 
 LISHING THE LIBERTIES OF 
 HIS COUNTRY 
 
 HAS RENDERED HIS NAME DEAR 
 
 TO HIS FELLOW CITIZENS AND 
 
 GIVEN THE WORLD AN IMMORTAL 
 
 EXAMPLE OF TRUE GLORY 
 
 [26]
 
 This inscription was not placed on the ped- 
 estal; originally, Washington's name only 
 was written on it; he needed and needs no 
 further eulogy. He is depicted in a simple 
 military uniform, a cloak falling over his 
 back; his right hand grasping a walking 
 stick, his left reposing on the Republican 
 fasces, symbol of law and unity. At his 
 feet stands a plow. The statue being life 
 size gives an unfortunate impression of 
 smallness, accentuated by the head and 
 the rather thin legs. An antique cos- 
 tume had been proposed ; Washington 
 and Houdon preferred to show Wash- 
 ington as the soldier and citizen who 
 returned to his plow having achieved the 
 liberty of his country. It is not Houdon's 
 best work; the modern costume proved a 
 handicap by putting an undue emphasis on 
 naturalistic detail of dress. But nothing 
 can exceed the head (and portrait sculpture 
 was Houdon's field par excellence) in firm- 
 ness and dignity. It is the head of the 
 thinker, the austere philosopher and the 
 far-seeing statesman. A copy of the statue 
 in bronze has been placed outside the 
 
 [27 1.
 
 National Gallery on Trafalgar Square in Lon- 
 don. Opposite, though some distance away, 
 the statue of Charles I is placed riding 
 toward Whitehall, sitting on his horse im- 
 periously, every inch a king, a symbol of the 
 kingship that is passed. And from his 
 pedestal another looks steadily towards the 
 Thames and the sea — George Washington, 
 symbol of his people and the kingship of 
 Liberty and Democracy. 
 
 1281
 
 ADDENDA
 
 D D E N D U M 
 
 Letter of Houdon 
 8 September I7q6 
 To the Governor of Virginia 
 
 "The eight July 1785 he was agreed between his 
 excellency Mr. Jefferson in the Virginia States name 
 and me that I should executed in marble the statue 
 of Mr. Washington for the price of 25000 french money 
 to be paid in three times — at the period of the last 
 payment at the end of 1 792 I received qooo which would 
 formed the whole sum I ought to received if it had not 
 been paid in assignats who losting in that time 60/100 
 only give the value 5625 silver. I remains due 3375- 
 
 By a letter to his excellency Mr. Morris I immediately 
 claim against this sort of payment. I enclose here the 
 answer Mr. Grand made for him to me — Mr. Morris 
 and Mr. Short didn't received answer from the Vir- 
 ginias State to the several letters they wrote on this 
 account. When at the end of 1795 his excellency Mr. 
 Monroe ordered the statues departure. I renewed my 
 claim for being paid the sum of 3 3 75 but neither the min- 
 ister nor the consul won't take any determination on this 
 subject they and me wrote to the Virginia's state on 
 this account, but again no answer. Now I address 
 myself directly to you, Sir, and I hope you will find my 
 request as right as any of the three ministers above 
 mentioned and that I shall received a satisfactory 
 answer. I am with the respect due your character Sir, 
 of your excellency the most obedient servant, 
 
 Houdon 
 Sculpteur au Louvre a Paris
 
 ADDENDUM 
 
 Receipt of Hondo n 
 for the last payment 
 
 J'ai regu de son excellence. Monsieur Monroe, pour 
 le compte de I'etat de Virginie, la somme de deux mille 
 huit cent Livres pour solde ce qui me restait du sur le 
 statue pedestre du General Washington, que j'ai exe- 
 cutee et livree au dit etat. Paris ce 27 Prairial an 11. 
 
 HOUDON. 
 
 (16 Juin 1803).
 
 ADDENDUM 
 
 BOOKS 
 CONSULTED 
 
 1. Hart. Charles Henry and E. 
 Biddle, Memoirs of the Life 6* 
 Works of Jean Antoine Houdon, 
 The Sculptor of Voltaire & 
 Washington. 
 
 Philadelphia, printed for the 
 authors iqii. 
 
 2. Smouse, Florence Ingersoll 
 
 Houdon en Amerique 
 
 Revue de I'Art Paris 1Q14. 
 
 3. Giacometti, Georges 
 
 Le Statuaire Jean Antoine Houdon 
 et son epoque (i 741-1828) Paris 
 Jouve 6" Cie. iqi8-iqiq. 
 
 4. W. S. Baker, The Engraved Por- 
 traits of Washington. 
 Philadelphia, Lindsay and Baker 
 1880.
 
 JEAN ANTOINE HOUDON 
 BY BOILLY
 
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