In 1785, the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon was commissioned by the Virginia General Assembly to sculpt a bust of Washington, who had led the nascent United States to victory in the American Revolutionary War. Houdon had been recommended by the recently returned United States Minister to France, Benjamin Franklin. The retired general sat for Houdon at Mount Vernon, the Washington family home in Fairfax County, Virginia between October 6 and 12, 1785. The sculptor took a life mask of the general's face—Washington's adopted granddaughter Nelly Custis, aged six at the time, later recalled her shock in seeing Washington lying on a table, as she thought dead, covered by a sheet and by the plaster for the mask. She was told that two quills extended into his nostrils, providing him with air. A bust at Mount Vernon today testifies to that visit. On his return to Paris, Houdon used his visage of General Washington in a number of sculptural settings, including the commissioned statue for the General Assembly, which still stands in marble in the Virginia State Capitol.