By the mid-nineteenth century Neoclassical design was resurrected and reconfigured into a new style now popularly referred to as colonial revival. George Washington, as “Father of his Country” was the historical figure most celebrated. The profile employed here is perhaps his best-known likeness, based on Jean-Antoine Houdon’s classic portrait bust.

Related examples: Soeffing 1988b, pp. 54–55; the Ineson-Bissell Collection at Winterthur.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.