Lafayette

This 1971 marble bust of the Marquis de Lafayette by an unknown artist after a 1786 original by Jean-Antoine Houdon stands in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

"Telling his wife, whom he left in France, that "the welfare of America is ultimately connected with the happiness of all mankind," the nineteen-year-old Marquis de Lafayette arrived to fight for the cause of liberty in early 1777. His moment of glory came during the Yorktown campaign, when he cut off General Cornwallis's path of retreat. An appreciative Virginia legislature commissioned his bust, and Lafayette is seen here in the uniform of a major general in the Continental army, displaying the badge of the Order of the Cincinnati, the fraternal society which united Washington's officers." -- National Portrait Gallery