The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has removed a rare portrait of the first president of the United States, George Washington, to be sold at auction to raise money for the museum’s acquisition fund. The painting, by famed American portraitist Gilbert Stuart, is estimated to sell for between $1.5 million and $2.5 million at an auction in New York next month.
According to Christie’s, the portrait is one of the earliest of Stuart in Washington after the president sat for him in the fall of 1795. Those portraits are known today as the Vaughan series, named after the recipient of the painting long believed to be the original. Only 14 of the portraits are known to exist today, according to Christie’s. The Met has another example, in addition to the painting that is sold at Christie’s. This other version, known as the Gibbs-Channing-Avery portrait, is considered one of the earliest and best replicas, according to the Met’s website. Only four of them Vaughan the portraits are in private hands, according to Christie’s.
“The Met retires works of art annually, following a thorough review focused on similar or duplicate objects,” a museum spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Journal of Art. “The museum is fortunate to have a rich collection of Gilbert Stuart paintings, including the first in the series of portraits of George Washington known as Vaughan group Funds from this sale will enable the museum to further prioritize the acquisition of outstanding works of art.”
The painting put up for sale at Christie’s was previously owned by the Philips family, English textile merchants who lived in the Manchester area but supported the American side during the American Revolution. The portrait passed through the family until 1923, when it was acquired by London dealer Frank T. Sabin, before passing to the powerful Duveen Brothers, who then sold the painting to Richard De Wolfe Brixey, a New York businessman, for $18,000.
When Brixey died in 1943, he bequeathed the painting to the Met. According to a 1944 article in The New York Times, Brixey bequeathed a total of eight paintings to the museum with an appraised value of $37,850. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $652,914 today. Other works at the Met from the Brixey collection include Portrait of a young woman (around 1490-1500) by Lorenzo di Credi and Midshipman Augustus Brine (1782) by John Singleton Copley, which can be seen on the museum’s Fifth Avenue.
The portrait of Washington is the most important lot in the Important Americana sale at Christie’s New York on January 18 and 19. Stuart’s auction record was set in 2018 during one of multiple live auctions of Peggy and David Rockefeller’s vast collection when one of Vaughan Portraits of Washington brought $11.5 million against an estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.
While withdrawing membership can be a controversial move for museums, the sale of works within a collection to fund future acquisitions falls under guidelines set by the Associated of Art Museum Directors (AAMD). Last month, a Balthus painting on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago sold at Sotheby’s in New York for nearly $14.7 million. with fees. The Met last year retired and consigned Pablo Picasso’s first Cubist sculpture. Female head (Fernande)which grossed $48.4 million with fees at Sotheby’s New York in May 2022.
