Capellano’s Bust of Washington
The first piece of gallery sculpture owned by the city of Baltimore was a bust of George Washington by Antonio Capellano. In 1823, Capellano, then living in Charm City, was anxious to obtain the commission for the statue of Washington planned for the Mount Vernon Place Monument. As an example of his work he presented the city with a marble likeness of America’s first president. He subsequently lost the commission to Italian artist Enrico Causici, but the gifted bust was kept and initially displayed in Rembrandt Peale’s Baltimore Museum. The photograph below comes from The Story of America’s Oldest Museum Building by Wilbur Harvey Hunter.
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