Lot Essay
John Jacob Astor is among the most important financiers and entrepreneurs in American history. Born in Waldorf, Germany in 1763, Astor arrived in New York in 1784, opened a small shop and by the late 1780s was actively trading furs. By 1800 when he had amassed a fortune of over a quarter of a million dollars, he was the acknowledged leader in the fur trade. Around this time Astor began to trade actively in the Far East and to acquire large tracts of Manhattan real estate, which would become the bulk of the family fortune. By 1834 Astor sold all his interests in the fur trade and focused his investments on New York real estate. When Astor died in 1848 his net worth was estimated conservatively at $20,000,000. All of his fortune--except $2,000,000 in various bequests and $400,000 to found a library that would become part of the New York Public Library--passed to his son, William Backhouse Astor. In his day, Washington Irving lauded Astor for his benevolence and public spirit; whereas others were less complementary, and when Astor died in 1848 the New York Herald wrote, "He has exhibited at best but the ingenious powers of a self-invented money-making machine."
Astor sat for Stuart around 1794, a time when Astor's fortune was expanding at an extraordinary pace. Stuart executed two portraits of Astor; the sitter rejected the first, a bust length canvas now in the collection of The Brook, New York. Stuart subsequently executed a second example, a half-length portrait, which portrays the sitter as more handsome and youthful than the first version. The second work, recorded in Lawrence Park's monograph on Stuart, descended through the English branch of the Astor family. The second portrait of Astor seems to have been engraved several times in the nineteenth century. Park refers to an engraving of the work published by Elias Dexter, a mid nineteenth-century New York publisher. A subsequent engraving that relates to the portrait was made by the New York engraver George Perine, and another example appeared in Todd's The Story of New York published by G. P. Putnam. The second version of the portrait was also reproduced in Pall Mall Magazine, London, vol. 17, 1899, p. 145 and in M.C. Crawford's Romantic Days in the Early Republic, New York, 1912, facing page 131.
The present lot is likely a copy of Stuart's second version. The tight, crisp paint handling suggests that the painter had considerable academic training, and this portrayal of the sitter brings out Astor's business-like demeanor and steely resolve.
Astor sat for Stuart around 1794, a time when Astor's fortune was expanding at an extraordinary pace. Stuart executed two portraits of Astor; the sitter rejected the first, a bust length canvas now in the collection of The Brook, New York. Stuart subsequently executed a second example, a half-length portrait, which portrays the sitter as more handsome and youthful than the first version. The second work, recorded in Lawrence Park's monograph on Stuart, descended through the English branch of the Astor family. The second portrait of Astor seems to have been engraved several times in the nineteenth century. Park refers to an engraving of the work published by Elias Dexter, a mid nineteenth-century New York publisher. A subsequent engraving that relates to the portrait was made by the New York engraver George Perine, and another example appeared in Todd's The Story of New York published by G. P. Putnam. The second version of the portrait was also reproduced in Pall Mall Magazine, London, vol. 17, 1899, p. 145 and in M.C. Crawford's Romantic Days in the Early Republic, New York, 1912, facing page 131.
The present lot is likely a copy of Stuart's second version. The tight, crisp paint handling suggests that the painter had considerable academic training, and this portrayal of the sitter brings out Astor's business-like demeanor and steely resolve.