After Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of George Washington, mid- to late 19th century

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “After Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of George Washington, mid- to late 19th century,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.3222.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “After Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of George Washington, mid- to late 19th century,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.3222.

According to Irish painter John Dowling Herbert (1762/3–1837), when Gilbert Stuart left Dublin in 1793 his aspiration was to paint the first president of the United States, stating, “I expect to make a fortune by Washington.”¹ Indeed, Stuart proceeded to paint more than one hundred portraits of George Washington, with his first painting dating to 1795 (in a work now known only from copies).² The success of his initial portrait led the president’s wife, Martha Washington, to express a desire for her own version, and she persuaded her husband to sit for Stuart again with the condition that the finished work would be hers.³ Stuart, reluctant to part with the painting, left it unfinished, using it as a reference for future commissions.⁴ That portrait served as the foundation not only for subsequent paintings by Stuart but also for the engraving of Washington featured on the one-dollar bill (Fig. 1). It became the prototype for countless copies, including the present miniature.

Stuart had a thriving practice and enlisted the assistance of younger associates and students, including his children Charles Gilbert Stuart (1787–1813) and Jane Stuart (1812–1888) and his nephew Gilbert Stuart Newton (English, 1795–1835).⁵ This miniature was attributed to Newton while it was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1939 to 1944, and when it was sold by its former owner, Mrs. J. Amory Haskell,⁶ but Newton is not believed to have created miniatures. His distinct coloring and controlled brushwork in oil diverge from the loose handling and subtle palette of the present work, which shows Washington in a black velvet suit and white linen shirt, looking to the left.⁷

Collecting portraits of American presidents was a widespread practice both during their presidencies and afterward, as enduring mementoes of allegiance. Although the creator of this portrait of the first US president remains uncertain, it undoubtedly emerged in emulation of Gilbert Stuart himself, similarly crafted to satiate the appetites of enthusiastic collectors.

Notes

1. Herbert quoted in Ellen Gross Miles, “Gilbert Stuart,” in Ellen Gross Miles, ed., American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1995), 160–62.

2. For more on Stuart’s portraits of Washington, see Ellen Miles, “The Gibbs-Coolidge Set of Presidential Portraits: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe,” in Miles, ed., American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, 265–66, 268–70, and 273.

3. As cited in Miles, “Gilbert Stuart,” 161.

4. See Gilbert Stuart (American, 1755–1828), George Washington, 1796, oil on canvas, 48 x 37 in. (121.9 x 94), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; owned jointly with Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.80.115.

5. For Stuart’s children and nephew, see John Hill Morgan and Matthew Harris Jouett, Gilbert Stuart and His Pupils: Together with the Complete Notes on Painting (New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1939), 42–51.

6. Important XVIII Century American Furniture . . . Collected by the Late Mrs. J. Amory Haskell (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, November 8–10, 1944), lot 462, p. 102.

7. The surface area of the miniature has unfortunately been affected in select areas by weeping glass, a deterioration process by which alkali is pulled from the glass structure by moisture in the air and deposited on the surface of the object. In severe instances, moisture builds up on the surface in the form of droplets, as is possibly the case here, causing areas of loss along the lower edges, in the lower central portion of Washington’s white shirt, and at his left shoulder and collar. The glass has since been replaced by Carol Aiken as part of a comprehensive conservation campaign carried out in preparation for this catalogue. See Carol Aiken, conservation treatment report, NAMA curatorial files.

With Henry V. Weil (1875–1946), New York [1];

Jonathan Amory Haskell (1861–1923), Red Bank, NJ, by 1923;

Inherited by his wife, Margaret Moore Haskell (née Riker, 1864–1942), Red Bank, NJ, and New York, by 1923–1942 [2];

Sold at her posthumous sale, Important XVIII Century American Furniture . . . Collected by the Late Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, November 8–10, 1944, lot 462, as George Washington [3];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] Sir Thomas William Holburne, 5th Baronet of Menstrie (1793–1874), loaned a miniature of George Washington to the South Kensington Museum, London, in June 1865, no. 1505, but there is no way to confirm if this is the same miniature. It is more likely that the Nelson-Atkins miniature was painted in America, and remained in the country until the Haskells acquired or inherited it.

[2] From 1939 to 1944, the miniature was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from “Mrs. J. Amory Haskell.”

[3] Described in the sales catalogue as: “George Washington, Gilbert Stuart Newton, British: 1797–1835. After the portrait by Gilbert Stuart, painted in London, in 1821; pinchbeck locket frame. From Henry V. Weil, New York. Exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1939–44.” According to Art Prices Current (1944–1945), 23:A13, lot 462 was bought for $60.

Gilbert Stuart, George Washington, 1796, oil on canvas, 48 x 37 in. (121.9 x 94 cm), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; owned jointly with Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, NPG.80.115.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 205, as George Washington.

Important XVIII Century American Furniture . . . Collected by the Late Mrs. J. Amory Haskell (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, November 8–10, 1944), 102, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 205, p. 69, (repro.), as George Washington.