Houdon's Washington

George Washington was warrior, statesman, sportsman, gentleman. Yet few pictures or statues of him suggest more than one side of his nature. In Artist Gilbert Stuart's famed portrait he is a gracious, handsome worthy. Other paintings depict him as a conventional, bewigged military man; a somewhat pompous dignitary. The Washington nose, thought too big for beauty, was usually modified. There was a keenness in the face, too, that most artists missed.

Neither the nose nor the keenness escaped Sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon (1740-1828), whose proud, grim marble bust is generally conceded to be the best, most expressive Washington likeness. U. S. patriots and artists were glad last week to hear that it had been purchased for a U.S. client by Manhattan Dealer Jonce I. McGurk, that it would soon be shipped to the U. S. Rumored buyers: John Davison Rockefeller Jr.; Percy Avery Rockefeller. Rumored price': $250,000.

Aghast at the price rumor was Godfrey Locker-Lampson, M. P., Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the recently-ousted Baldwin Cabinet. His family had long owned the bust. He had lately sold it to a dealer for "just over $2,500." Said he: ''The firm . . . resold it, I understand, for a modest profit."

In 1785 Sculptor Houdon was chosen by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, as "the best [sculptor] in any of the European States," to do a statue of Washington. With Franklin he traveled to the U. S., stayed two weeks at Mount Vernon, took measurements, made plaster casts. He is said to have sought vainly for the desired facial expression until he saw Washington dismiss an avaricious horse trader.