Gilbert Stuart, "Portrait of George Washington" oil on canvas, 1798 Sells for a Record $850,000.00

 

 

Gilbert Stuart, "Portrait of George Washington" oil on canvas, 1798. Canvas: 28.5"H x 24"W; Frame: 39.25"H x 34"W. PROVENANCE: James Yard, Philadelphia. C. N. Robinson, Philadelphia. Joseph Swift, Philadelphia (acquired from the above in April 1853). Thence by descent to Mrs. Thomas Balch (daughter of Mr. Swift), Philadelphia (1882). The Balch Foundation, Philadelphia. Private collection, Alabama (for two decades). Hammer Galleries, New York. From the Collection of Mr. Sam Wyly, Dallas, Texas (acquired from the above in 2000). LITERATURE: Mantle Fielding, "Gilbert Stuart's Portraits of George Washington," Private Printing, Philadelphia, 1923, p. 159, no. 38. Lawrence Park, "Gilbert Stuart - An Illustrated Descriptive List of His Works," New York, 1926, Vol. II, pp. 867 - 68, no. 39. John Hill Morgan and Mantle Fielding, "Life Portraits of Washington and Their Replicas," Philadelphia, 1931, p. 277, no. 38. Gustavus A. Eisen, "Portraits of Washington," Vol. I, New York: Robert Hamilton & Associates, 1932, p. 191 (referred to as the "Yard-Balch" portrait). "18th, 19th & 20th Century American Masters," Elliott Yeary Gallery, Aspen, Colorado, pp. 3-4 (illustrated in color, p. 4). NOTE: This 1798 portrayal of George Washington was modeled after the original 1796 portrait of George Washington painted by Stuart in the Athenaeum style. The earlier portrait, jointly owned by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA, illustrates the most popular of Stuart's three styles of Washington portraiture, the other two which are named the Vaughan and the Lansdowne types. The Athenaeum type depicts the President in warm flesh tones seated against a dark background and dressed in a black velvet suit with a white ruffled lace shirt. As the most popular image of Washington, this portrait was famously illustrated on stamps and the one dollar bill. Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755-1828) was regarded as the premier portraitist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and was renowned for his portrayals of the country's wealthiest and most politically prominent citizens, namely George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Paul Revere.

 

 

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