This engraving from the Illustrated London News (6 Aug.1853, p.72) shows the colossal plaster statue of George Washington on Horseback,which Marochetti sent to the Exhibition of Industry of All Nations in New York. It was coloured to simulate bronze, and stood, when the exhbition first opened on 14 July 1853, in the place of honour, in the central rotunda of the New York Crystal Palace, which housed the exhibition. Built in evident emulation of Paxton's building for the Great Exhibition in London, its architects were a Dane, Georg Carstensen, who had made his name designing Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens, and a German, Charles Gildemeister. British newspapers reported in mid-March that Marochetti had completed his statue and that it was ready for embarkation. The reason for Marochetti deciding to make this incursion into the transatlantic sculpture scene has not been established, though it was clearly seen by Americans as a bid for a commission in their country. Having his ear to the ground as he did, Marochetti would have been aware that America's first equestrian statue of Washington was already underway. In 1850, the sculptor Thomas Crawford had won a competition launched the previous year for a monument to Washington for Richmond (Virginia). The crowning feature was to be an equestrian statue of the first president. Production of this statue was delayed by Crawford's having also been commissioned for a major pedimental sculpture for the Washington Capitol building, but his equestrian statue, always referred to by him  in his letters as "The Horse", was finally being cast by Ferdinand von Müller in Munich, while the New York exhibition was in full swing. (see R. Gale, Thomas Crawford, American Sculptor, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964)

On 19 February 1852, Marochetti wrote to Charles Buschek, the London agent for the New York exhibition, telling him that the plaster statue was completed, but still not completely dry. He said that if colour was applied to the wet plaster, it might change during transport or during the exhibition itself. He had agreed to deliver the statue by 1 March, but was hoping that Buschek would allow him to keep it for a while, in order to show it off to interested parties prior to despatch (Letter from Marochetti to Buschek in the author' collection). Reports in the British press on Marochetti's Washington  prior to its send-off were very favourable, the Morning Post (29 June 1853, p.3) referring to it as "a magnificent contribution of Italian workmanship", and misleadingly describing it as being in bronze. Other newspapers repeated the opinion that it was "worthy of the artist, and has the peculiar characteristics of his style". (see for example Windsor and Eton Express, 19 March 1853) The Illustrated London News article for which our image was an illustration, reported on it as it appeared at the exhibiton, occupying "the post of honour under the centre of the dome", standing on "a temporary wooden pedestal crowned with crimson cloth". The article goes on to claim that "it fully sustains the still growing reputation of the sculptor", and then extols its lack of pretention: "The easy manner in which Washington sits the horse, and the calm and yet powerful expression in the features of the great man, all tend to stamp it as a triumph of art. No trappings, tassels or useless ornaments deck the horse or rider; the plain sword hangs negligently by his side, and with the exception of the pistol-holders and the epaulettes on the shoulders of Washington, there is nothing to distinguish him from a private gentleman of the time of George III."

In one American guide to the New York exhibition during its opening year, the writer admitted that the statue seemed to be "a source of pleasure to many humbugged people", and then condemned it as "bad, unqualifiedly and entirely". A long description contains such observations as that "the attitude of the figure is about that which would be assumed by a bag of meal on horseback", and that "the right hand......is twisted in a manner which suggests palsy or some other preternatural flexibility of the muscles". It concludes, "if the artist enjoys, as we are told he does, a European reputation, it must be among a very limited circle". ( Art and Industry as Represented in the Exhibition at the Crystal Place, New York 1853-54, from the New York Tribune -revised and edited by Horace Greeley, New York, 1853, p.55)

In May 1854, the exhibits underwent a reorganisation at the hands of the showman Phineas T. Barnum. When the palace reopened, Marochetti's Washington had been removed to a less conspicuous position, its place in the rotunda taken by a fountain crowned by a personification of America. This fountain was the idea of Georg Carstensen, but executed in six days by two sculptors called Borup and Muller. A guide to the palace of 1854 says, referring to the Marochetti Washington that the sculptor "had the advantage of being the first in the field, at least the first whose work has been brought under the observation of Washington's countrymen". It went on to report on Crawford's statue, "already cast in bronze in Munich", and on another commission for an equestrian Washington, to adorn the national capital, given "within these few days" by the US Congress to Clark Mills. (The World of Science, Art and Industry Illustrated from Examples in the New York Exhibition 1853-54, ed. Prof. B. Silliman Jr. and C.R. Goodrich, G.R. Putnam and Co., New York, 1854, pp.35-36)

Another guide to the revamped palace commented that "the reduced cast of Marochetti's Washington is better than the colossal statue". This suggests that the bronze statuette version, of which two casts are known to this author, was either exhibited in the New York Crystal Palace, or at the very least had been seen in America in 1854. (How to see the New York Crystal Palace. A concise guide to the principal objects in the exhibition, as remodelled, 1854. Part first. General view, Sculpture, Paintings, G.R.Putnam and Co., New York, June 1854, p.12)

A large plaster model of the head of George Washington, probably a fragment from another cast of the colossal statue, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Its inventory number is 1152-1868. It is one of the few surviving items from a substantial  donation of works by Marochetti made by the Baronne Marochetti, following her husband's death at the end of 1867.  (Diane Bilbey, with Marjorie Trusted, British Sculpture 1470 to 2000. A concise catalogue of the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2002, p.334)