George Washington portrait sells for a record US$21.3 million at Christie’s
Published January 22nd, 2006
Charles Willson Peale’s full-length portrait of George Washington on the American Revolutionary War battlefield fetched US$21.3 million (euro17.65 million) at auction yesterday, setting a world record for the sale of an American portrait, Christie’s auction house said.
‘George Washington at Princeton’, signed and dated 1779 by the Revolutionary period’s premier portrait artist, was one of eight full-length portraits of Washington painted by Peale between 1779 and 1781 and was the only one known to be in private hands.
Christie’s did not disclose the buyer in a press release. The auction house had said earlier the painting was expected to fetch US$10 million (euro8.29 million) to US$15 million (euro12.43 million).
It was offered as part of a collection of American furniture and arts from Natalie Knowlton Blair, a collector of American art who died in 1951.
The entire collection, which includes a 1729 chest of drawers by Robert Crosman and an 18th-century Queen Anne mahogany card table, sold for US$32.3 million (euro26.76 million), setting a record for an Americana collection, Christie’s said.
