(New York, 1871-1922)

George Washington at Valley Forge, lifetime cast circa 1906-1922, after the maquette, signed on top of base "H.M. Shrady", with foundry mark "Roman Bronze Works N-Y-", bronze, 25-1/2 x 23-1/2 x 9 in., mahogany wood plinth, 1 x 23 x 9 in., with matching wood pedestal base with doric columns by Greg Guenther, 38-3/8 x 20 x 9 in.

Note: Augustus Saint-Gaudens was impressed with the efforts of his friend and contemporary, Henry Shrady when he asked him to review his work for the monument that was commissioned for the Brooklyn Plaza of the Williamsburg Bridge (now Continental Army Plaza) on September 29, 1906. "I congratulate you on the lines, sentiment and character of the group," he wrote in 1906, "it is admirable from every point of view". Thayer Tolles discusses the Met?s copy of the maquette in her catalog of the American sculptures in the collection which states that there were more than four copies of the maquette made. Additional casts of George Washington at Valley Forge are included in the collections of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Henry M. Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, Florida, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This cast compares similarly to the one held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The bridle, stirrup, and quality of the details are similar with a slightly different treatment of the reins.

For a similar bronze after the maquette see: Sotheby's New York, November 21, 2016, lot 18 which sold for a record $200,000.00.

Literature: Charles DeKay, "Henry Merwin Shrady's Washington for Brooklyn," The New York Times, October 1, 1905; Patricia Janis Broder, Bronzes of the American West, New York, 1974, p. 241; Lewis I. Sharp, New York City Public Sculpture by 19th Century American Artists, New York, 1974, pp. 18-19; Thayer Tolles, ed., American Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1865 and 1885, New Haven, Connecticut, 2001, vol. II, pp. 547-48, illustration of another example

Provenance: Private Collection, Larchmont, New York; The Greenwich Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut, purchased in 2005 for $38,000 (accompanied by a copy of the original receipt and guarantee); Private Bluffton, South Carolina Collection

brown to dark brown patina, wax residue on bronze, mounting screws attached underside; abrasions to pedestal base and residue on plinth