George Washington (Greenough)

For other uses, see George Washington (disambiguation).

George Washington
ArtistHoratio Greenough
Year1840 (1840)
TypeCarrara marble
Dimensions3.5 m × 2.6 m (136 in × 102 in × 82 1/2[1] in)
LocationNational Museum of American History, Washington, D.C., United States
Coordinates38°53′28″N 77°01′50″W / 38.89111°N 77.03056°W / 38.89111; -77.03056
OwnerSmithsonian Institution

George Washington, also known as Enthroned Washington, is a large marble sculpture by Horatio Greenough commissioned by the United States Congress on July 14, 1832 for the centennial of U.S. President George Washington's birth on February 22, 1732. Completed in 1840, the statue was soon exhibited in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol and then moved to the Capitol's east lawn in 1843.[2] Since 1964, it has been in the National Museum of American History.[2]

Horatio Greenough based Enthroned Washington on Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World which was destroyed in Late Antiquity.[3]

  1. ^ "George Washington by Horatio Greenough / American Art". si.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference siris was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Garry Wills (March 1984). "Washington's Citizen Virtue: Greenough and Houdon". Critical Inquiry. 10 (3). The University of Chicago Press: 420–441. doi:10.1086/448256. JSTOR 1343301. S2CID 159821356.