July 12-14, 2022 Collectible Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/12/2022
Rare, early mezzotint copy of the Landsdowne portrait of Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart, as published by Atkins and Nightingale July 1, 1801 in Philadelphia and London. Captioned at bottom, "General Washington / from the original picture in Philadelphia" with the publisher's line in small print above, the London address added in the plate. Printed in color with colors finished by hand. Commissioned by Lord Landsdowne, former British Prime Minister. Stuart worked from a single sitting granted by Washington in Fall 1795 and completed it in Germantown in 1796 and made several copies. The portrait purports to show Washington addressing Congress in 1795: his hand outstretched in rhetorical gesture. This version omits the rainbow usually seen in the background, but clouds do give way to blue sky. Books titled Laws and Constitution sit by a table leg shaped like the fasces of the Roman Republic and the ceremonial mace of the House of Representatives that uses the same bound rods, but topped by an eagle, as on the table leg. Washington is dressed not in a uniform, but the plain black of a citizen and wears a civilian dress sword, showing him as both father and servant of the Republic. Landsdowne respected Washington and had secured a peaceful end to the war. It did not hurt that the terms of the Jay Treaty, settling claims between the 2 countries at about the time the portrait was commissioned, were regarded rather more favorably in Britain than here. CONDITION: Excellent. Bright colors, completely intact, no folds or losses, only very minor thin foxing or soiling to margins.