Page 34 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

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CHINESE SCHOOL, EARLY 19TH CENTURY, AFTER GILBERT STUART
Portrait of George Washington, half length, wearing a black velvet coat and white lace jabot
reverse painting on glass
28¬ x 21Ωin. (72.7 x 54.6cm.)
34 x 26¬in. (86.4 x 67.7cm.) including frame
in original frame with original backing board intact
£20,000-30,000 US$25,000-37,000
€23,000-34,000

EXHIBITED:
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade from 1784 to
1900, Dec. 2019-April 2019, no.1.23.
A copy of Stuart's 'Athenaeum' portrait of Washington, elected America's frst President in 1789. The prototype was painted by
Stuart in 1795 and he then painted scores of replicas, a large run from his unfnished 1796 sitting, which he sold for $100 each, and
one or two of which seem to have made their way to Canton to be copied: 'The full-size portraits on glass of George Washington
which were painted by Chinese artists are particularly important, though they are often dificult to identify. The subject of George
Washington (and his apotheosis) was extremely popular with glass painters in America and Europe as well as with those in
China; there has been a great deal of confusion as to which are by whom. The very beginning of the 19th century saw a mania for
Washingtoniana. The Washingtons which were painted by the Chinese were undoubtedly copied from an original portrait by Gilbert
Stuart which had found its way to China. All the known Chinese reverse paintings on glass of Washington are of superb quality, of
the same size as the Stuart originals from which they were copied, and are in the 'Athenaeum Washington' style. That the Chinese
were extremely adept in their copying is evidenced by Stuart's action to secure an injunction against the importation of such copies
of his paintings from China.' (C.L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1991, p.215).
The Philadelphian China Trader John E. Sword bought one of the sixty replicas painted by Stuart from the artist and took it out to
Canton and returned on the Connecticut in 1802 with more than one hundred Chinese copies. When he undertook to sell them,
Gilbert Stuart, also in Philadelphia at the time, moved to sue him for copyright infringement. Stuart argued in the Eastern District
Court of Pennsylvania that he had earlier sold Sword a portrait of Washington on the condition that 'no copies thereof should be
taken.' He later discovered that Sword 'did shortly afterwards take the same with him to China and there procured above one
hundred copies … by Chinese artists and hath brought the same copies to the United States, and proposes to vend them.' As they
were not sold as counterfeits, but as Chinese works of art, the works on glass most clearly so, and as also deriving from a replica,
Stuart ended up losing his injunction.
For similar works, see the portrait in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (gift of Mr. Howell N. White, 1970E78992), and the
portrait in the Sze Yuan Tan collection (P. Conner, Paintings of the China Trade: The Sze Yuan Tan Collection of Historic Paintings,
Hong Kong, 2013, p.124, no.109).

32 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.