Artist Frederick Hart was finishing the clay model of the Dan Quayle bust for the Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Collection when he died suddenly in 1999. Quayle sat on two occasions for Hart at his studio in Hume, Virginia, and a life mask was made of the vice president by Willa Shalit to help in the sculpting process. After Hart’s death, his assistant, Jeff Hall, completed the clay model and prepared the plaster cast. The bust was to be carved in marble by Vincent Palumbo, master stone carver at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., as originally intended by Hart. Palumbo had worked extensively with Hart over the years, both at the cathedral and on private commissions; the Senate’s full-length marble statue of former Senator Richard Russell was such a collaboration. However, Palumbo died suddenly before he could begin the work. New York artist Daniel Sinclair was ultimately selected to complete the commission.
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