Circa 1795: America's first president George Washington sits for his portrait by painter Gilbert Stuart at his studio in Germantown. Martha Washington gives her comments to the artist. Original Artwork: Painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863 - 1930).
A rare portrait of the first United States President, George Washington, has been deaccessioned by New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and will consequently be sold in a Christie's auction dubbed "Important Americana Sale" from Jan. 18 to 19.
One Among a Series of Valued Washington Portraits
According to the auction house's website listing, the piece was made by acclaimed American portraitist Gilbert Stuart and has an initial valuation that ranges between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. The painting is believed to be among Stuart's earliest portraiture of the country's inaugural president and was created in the autumn season of 1795.
The series of Stuart portraits this piece belongs to was eventually coined as "Vaughan" types named after the recipient of Washington's original portrait. To date, 14 paintings are known to be included in the "Vaughan" series of portraits, and only four of these belong to a private collection.
Aside from the to-be-sold "Vaughan" type painting, the Met also possesses another version that is called the "Gibbs-Channing-Avery" piece which is considered to be one of the best and earliest made copies of the portrait.
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History of this Particular 'Vaughan' Type Portrait
The recently deaccessioned portrait previously belonged to a family of English textile traders living in Manchester who provided support for the US amidst the American Revolution. This family, known as the Philips, handed the painting from generation to generation up until 1923 when it was sold to an art dealer from London, Frank T. Sabin.
Sabin passed the painting to the Duveen Brothers, one of the most prominent art firms in the 20th century, who subsequently sold the portrait to a New York businessman named Richard De Wolfe Brixey in an $18,000 deal.
Upon Brixey's passing in 1943, the "Vaughan" type was handed over to the Met Museum along with seven other paintings, as reported by a 1944 The New York Times article. All eight pieces were reportedly priced at $37,850 at the time. Adjusted to today's value of the dollar, this amount would be around $652,000.
Washington's "Vaughan" type portrait is expectedly the top lot within the future Christie's New York auction. Cara Zimmerman, head of Americana at Christie's, said in a statement to Penta: "This sale is a window into America at the time of the Revolution, from the bottom up and top down."
The standing sale record for the most expensively sold among Stuart's portraits sits at $11.5 million with an initial valuation that ranged between $800,000 to $1.2 million. This particular piece was sold in 2018 as part of the "Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection Sale."
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