Estimated Price:

$200,000 - $300,000

Realised Price:

$925,000

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O/C. Label on reverse reads "Winthrop Astor Chanler" Gilbert Stuart is considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best known work, the unfinished portrait of George Washington that is referred to as The Athenaeum, was begun in 1796 and left incomplete at the time of Stuart's death in 1828. Gilbert Stuart was a pupil of Cosmo Alexander, a Scottish painter who was visiting America. After Alexander's death, when the American Revolution was threatening, Stuart became the protégé of Benjamin West in London where his works were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts. On his return to America, Stuart lived in Philadelphia and eventually settled in Boston where he became the most prominent portrait painter of his day. Stuart made approximately 100 likenesses of George Washington, who was president from 1789-1797. The pictures are grouped in categories named after the first owners of the original portraits from which Stuart made his own replicas. Gilbert Stuart was also the first to depict Washington as a leader and not a general. This portrait of George Washington is from the Chanler family of Geneseo, NY. The Chanler's family tree reaches back to John Jacob Astor, the first multi-millionaire in American history who emigrated from his home country to England. In 1784 he traveled to the United States and started trading furs with the native Indian population and by the late 1780's had set up a fur emporium in New York City. He further compounded his fortune by exporting furs to China in exchange for tea and sandalwood. Astor established the American Fur Company, which he used to fund the overland Astor Exhibition to the Pacific. The expedition led to the discovery of the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains and the establishment of Fort Astoria, extending his monopoly into the American West. In the 1830's, Astor sold all of his assets to invest in large tracts of Manhattan real estate. By the time of his death in 1848, John Jacob Astor was the wealthiest man in America, with an estimated fortune of $20 million, the equivalent to $115 billion today, making him one of the top five richest people in American history. A portrait of John Jacob Astor was also painted by Gilbert Stuart. Emily Astor, heir to John Jacob Astor, married Samuel Ward. (His character today is known as "Uncle Sam"). Their daughter, Margaret Astor Ward, married John Winthrop Chanler. Maddie married John Winthrop Chanler, heir to ancestral Winthrop and Stuyvesant lands in lower Manhattan. When Maddie's grandfather, William B. Astor died, a large portion of his estate was left to Maddie Chanler. Maddie died at age 37 while she was pregnant with her twelfth child. She left behind her husband and 10 surviving children ranging in age from two to thirteen. When her husband John Winthrop Chanler died a short time later, these 10 children became orphans. Their story is told in a book written by Lately Thomas titled: "The Astor Orphans: A Pride of Lions". It is for Oliver Chanler, a descendent of Margaret Astor Ward, that Cottone Auctions is proud to be selling this pristine painting of George Washington, being offered for sale for the first time since its ownership by the Chanlers'.