Who has appeared on the most US postage stamps?

It’s not a trick question. Rather, not surprisingly, the answer is George Washington, who was, famously, “first in war, first in peace,” (and for the many years that Washington Senators baseball team existed, “last in the American League.”)

Washington not only appeared on many stamps, in a variety of images (almost all of them “heroic.”). Some of the images were from paintings by Gilbert Stuart and other well-known artists. And one of the most iconic, which appeared on several stamps, is based on a bust of Washington made by Jean Antoine Houdon, “the preeminent sculptor of the French Enlightenment.” Because he was born on March 25, 1741, three of those stamps are, collectively, today’s #stampoftheday: a 3-cent stamp issued in 1857, 2-cent stamp issued in 1908 and a 1-cent stamp issued in 1932.

The assessment of Houdon in the previous paragraph is not just some random quote (or me making stuff up). Rather, it’s how the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website describes Houdon. And who am I to argue with the Met’s description of an artist who also made famous sculptures of a variety of luminaries, including Denis Diderot, Benjamin Franklin, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Moli�re, Thomas Jefferson, Louis XVI, Robert Fulton, and NapolŽon Bonaparte.

To be fair, the Wikipedia entry is not quite as effusive, saying only “Houdon is famous for his portrait busts and statues of philosophers, inventors and political figures of the Enlightenment.” While that’s high praise it’s not the same as “preeminent.”

So let’s look for a tiebreaker. How about: “Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) is generally considered to have been the greatest sculptor in Europe during the period of the Enlightenment.”

Again, this isn’t some random opinion. Rather it’s the opening line of the “Directors’ Foreword” of a catalog of a major Houdon exhibition mounted in the early 2000s that was the first international exhibition devoted to his work. Note that that it’s the directors’ (not director’s), which means it’s more than one person. Indeed, the foreword was signed by the heads of the three museums where the exhibition was mounted: the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the MusŽe et domaine national du ch‰teau de Versailles, in France.

So Houdon was the best sculptor of his time. And, writing in the 3-museum catalog, art historian Anne L. Poulet, noted that “Houdon considered his portrait of George Washington the most important commission of his career.” He had taken on the project, which was authorized by the Virginia state legislature, at the urging of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who had known him in Paris. He agreed to do the project if he could sketch Washington in person. They agreed and Houdon came to America in 1785 and spent several weeks with Washington at Mount Vernon.

During that visit Washington became so angry with horse trader that he ordered the man to immediately leave the property. In that moment, Houdon saw something in the face and tried to capture it. He made a clay bust, which he gave to Washington before he left for France to make the statue (which stands in the Virginia State Capital). Nelly Custis, one of Martha Washington’s three granddaughters, and her husband supposedly considered this bus to be “the best representation of Gen. Washington’s face they had ever seen.”

The second US stamp, which pictured Washington, used Gilbert Stuart portrait not Houdon’s bust as the basis for the picture. But Houdon’s bust was used on the next Washington stamp, which was issued in 1851 and a subsequent stamp issued in 1857. For the rest of the century, various series of stamps all featured Washington, sometimes as portrayed by Houdon, sometimes as depicted by Stuart.

The Stuart image was used on a .problematic stamp issued in 1903. The proofs of that stamp, which were printed in black ink on India paper, were so crisp and clear that one New York newspaper stated it was “the finest stamp ever produced.” However, when the actual stamp was printed on the softer stamp paper in red ink, the result was not as beautiful as anticipated. Many felt the overall design was poor, the portrait didn’t resemble Washington, and the stamp appeared too crowded. So when a new series was issued in 1909, a simpler stamp, using the Houdon bust, honored Washington.

In 1932, on the 200th anniversary of Washington’s birth, the Post Office issued 12 stamps featuring Washington, as Postmaster General Walter Brown noted, “as a youth, a civil engineer, as a commander and chief in the army, and so on through life.” Moreover, rather than relying on paintings of historic events, the Post Office decided to search for and use the most for the most accurate depictions of Washington. And, having concluded that Houdon’s bust was the most accurate, they decided to use it on the 1-cent stamp.

That choice, I think would have pleased Houdon, who once explained: “One of the finest attributes of the difficult art of the sculptor is to preserve the truthfulness of form and to render almost imperishable the image of those who have contributed either to the glory or the happiness of their country. The idea has followed me constantly, and encouraged me during long hours of labor.”

And, that is the art lesson for today.

Be well, stay safe, fight for justice, and work for peace.