Photo courtesy of Mount Vernon Ladies Association
Bastille Key and Sketch
George Washington’s Mount Vernon Thursday announced an exclusive three-month public exhibition of The Destruction of the Bastille, an ink-wash drawing created just weeks after the Bastille fell during the French Revolution.
The Marquis de Lafayette sent The Destruction of the Bastille to George Washington as a gift, and it is on display along with the Key to the Bastille at Mount Vernon’s Donald W. Reynolds Museum in honor of Bastille Day from July 14 through Oct. 15.
The Destruction of the Bastille is a precious pen, brush, and ink wash on paper drawn from life on by Étienne-Louis-Denis Cathala, the architect charged with Bastille’s demolition.
George Washington took great pride in both the Key to the Bastille and The Destruction of the Bastille, and he hung them together in the Central Passage of his Mount Vernon home for all to see. The Marquis de Lafayette was an heroic Frenchman who helped lead the colonists to victory during the American Revolution before he became involved in the French Revolution. The drawing and key have come to symbolize the relationship between the American Revolution and the French Revolution, as well as the deep bond between Washington and Lafayette.
“We are thrilled to share The Destruction of the Bastille, an extraordinary and historically significant drawing, with the public,” said Adam T. Erby, executive director of Historic Preservation and Collections at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.
Erby said, "In 1790, Lafayette sent the key and drawing to his mentor George Washington along with a description of the French Revolution’s unfolding events. Lafayette told Washington that the drawing depicts the Bastille immediately after he ordered its destruction. At that time, Lafayette was at the height of his power as the head of the Paris National Guard, an appointment given to him largely due to his military experience fighting in the American Revolutionary War.”
“The drawing captures extraordinary detail—even tiny figures atop the Bastille dismantling it stone by stone.” Mount Vernon is delighted to welcome The Destruction of the Bastille back home, where visitors can view this remarkable artwork alongside the Key to the Bastille for the next three months,” Erby said.
Members of the Washington family took this drawing with them when they sold the estate to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in 1860. The family subsequently sold the piece, and the drawing began a remarkable journey prior to its auction last year.
In his letter to Washington, Lafayette wrote of the gift:
“Give me leave, My dear General, to present you With a picture of the Bastille just as it looked a few days after I Had ordered its demolition, with the Main Kea of that fortress of despotism—it is a tribute Which I owe as A Son to My Adoptive father, as an aid de Camp to My General, as a Missionary of liberty to its patriarch."
The Destruction of the Bastille is on loan to Mount Vernon from the private collection of The Honorable Nicholas Taubman, a native Virginian and the former U.S. Ambassador to Romania.
For the remainder of 2025, guests who purchase a full-priced ticket to Mount Vernon can receive unlimited daytime admission for the rest of the year with a 2025 Pass. More details are available here.
Please note that Mount Vernon has embarked upon a landmark Mansion Revitalization project. During visits, preservation teams are restoring the framing, masonry, drainage, and environmental controls of the Mansion, ensuring America’s first president’s home will be ready to receive millions of guests for generations to come.
The Mansion will always remain open during this vital work, with individual rooms taken off display as work progresses. The Education Center exhibit on George Washington’s life will be off display for an extensive rebuild until Spring 2026. However, the expansive estate remains open to visitors, including the museum, more than a dozen historic buildings, the gardens and farm, and the Tomb.
Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the oldest national historic preservation organization in the United States. The estate is open to visitors and includes the Mansion, a museum and education center, gardens, tombs, a working farm, a functioning distillery, and a gristmill. It also includes the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.
