Page 104 - 2020 September Fine Chinese Paintings and Works of Art, Bonham NYC

CHINESE ART FROM THE KELTON COLLECTION
223
GUANGZHOU SCHOOL, AFTER GILBERT STUART, PORTRAIT
OF GEORGE WASHINGTON,
1798-1801 This reverse glass depiction of George Washington was likely based
Reverse painting on glass, in the original frame with original backing on a Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) oil portrait brought to Guangzhou
board. in 1798 by Captain John Sword--who purchased the original from
28 5/8 x 21 1/2in (72.7 x 54.6cm); 34 x 26 5/8in (86.4 x 67.7cm) Stuart himself. Upon his arrival in Guangzhou, Sword commissioned
including frame a hundred reproductions of the Stuart original, but employing the
Guangzhou-based artists to use the reverse glass painting technique,
$18,000 - 25,000 with large sheets of imported European glass as the canvas. Upon
his return to the United States in 1802, Swords took advantage of the
Exhibited and Published craze of Washington imagery following the first president’s death in
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, December 2019-April 1799, selling the Chinese reproductions to patriotic Americans.
2019, The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China A Century
of Trade 1780-1900, no. 1.23. In an early case of copyright infringement, Gilbert Stuart took John
Sword to court to halt the distribution of the reverse glass copies. He
eventually won the case, but it took over a year, and by then a majority
of the Chinese copies were dispersed. Currently several institutions
have copies of the Washington portrait on glass, the Peabody Essex
Museum, Salem, MA holds two copies, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York has one, with another in the Yale University Art
Museum.

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