Brunk Auctions
Live Auction

Premier Auction - Session II - March 25, 2023

Sat, Mar 25, 2023 09:00AM EDT
Lot 976

Charles Willson Peale

Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $25
$100 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $200
$3,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000

(American, 1741-1827)

Rare and Important Portrait Miniature of George Washington, 1779, the "Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay miniature", painted after Washington's full length portrait from his 1779 sitting with Peale, unsigned, watercolor on ivory, 1-7/8 x 1-1/2 in.; ornate carved stained wood frame, 5 x 4-3/4 in.

 

Literature: Literature: Sellers, Charles Coleman. 1968. Portraits and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, page 234, no. 927, ill. page 362.; Frick Art Reference Library Digital Collection: https://library.frick.org/permalink/01NYA_INST/d73c5u/alma991004324379707141

 

 

Note: Referenced in Sellers (above) is a note written by Titian Ramsey Peale in which he (mis)attributes the painting to James Peale. Sellers clarifies that Titian, who was not yet born at the time this miniature was painted, was confusedly thinking of a sitting from 1795. An aged pen and ink facsimile of that letter is preserved and visible at the back of the frame.

Condition

laid on card, ivory appears fully intact, fading (as noted in Sellers), some surface wear commensurate with age; frame old but not original, some abrasions and wear

Col. Nathaniel Ramsay, brother-in-law of the artist; his daughter, Mrs. Daniel McHenry; her niece, Mrs. W.F. Brand; Mrs. B.F. O'Connor (in 1933 in the home of her son, Mr. F.B. O'Connor); Mr. F. Barnard O'Connor, New York, NY (died May 26, 1953); his wife, Mrs. F. Barnard O'Connor, New York, NY; Private New England Collection