Though Christie’s is a British company, the luxury auction house is still celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence with a sale of historical treasures at Rockefeller Center in New York.
Visually, the standout lot in the “We the People: America at 250” auction is without a doubt a portrait of George Washington painted for James Madison, the fourth President of the United States. At the time the work was commissioned from the era’s preeminent portraitist, Gilbert Stuart, in 1804, Madison was serving as Secretary of State in Thomas Jefferson’s administration—Washington had died five years earlier. It’s a replica of Stuart’s most famous “Athenaeum-type” Washington portrait, so named for the Boston Athenaeum that owned the original for over a century. Stuart was likely in the process of painting Madison himself when his statesman subject commissioned the Washington portrait, which is expected to sell for between $500,000 and $1 million.
According to Christie’s, “The portrait presents the sitter with a squared jaw, jagged hair queue, and stiff linen shirt ruffle, a combination of features seen in Stuart’s replicas from the early 1800s owned by patrons living in the mid-Atlantic region. In contrast, his earlier Philadelphia works dated to the late 1790s display more decorative lace ruffles and during his later years in Boston, his replicas portray the sitter with a rounder, more oval face.”
While Madison’s personal portrait of America’s first President would normally be an auction headliner, it’s bested by a pair of history-shaping American documents. The first is an extremely rare “broadside” edition of the Declaration of Independence—a copy printed for dissemination to the colonies directly after the Continental Congress officially adopted the document. Christie’s notes that there are approximately 110 total extant copies of the Declaration surviving today, 75 to 80 percent of which are owned by institutions. Expect this one, which was discovered in 1980 inside a 19th-century wooden box, to sell for between $3 million and $5 million at auction.
The other We the People: America at 250 headliner is an original working version of the U.S. Constitution, printed on September 13, 1787. This “Second Printed Plan” or “Committee of Style Draft” is a copy of last version of the Constitution printed for the delegates to review, edit, and debate before the final version was signed on September 17. Most notably, this draft marked the first time the famous “We, the People of the United States” appeared in a Constitution draft, which previously listed each state individually. Expect it to sell for between $3 million and $5 million.
Browse all 44 lots offered in Christie’s “We the People: America at 250 auction here before it unfolds from January 13-28 online and at Rockefeller Center.
