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Lot Essay
Portraying the sitter at a three-quarter angle and showing the “full face,” the pastel offered here is a rarity among the well-known renditions of George Washington created by James Sharples (1752-1811), his wife Ellen (1769-1849), and their children who participated in the family business. In contrast, the profile image, executed with the aid of a mechanical device, appears to have been made in far greater numbers based on known surviving examples (see lot 217 in this sale). Only six other pastels with this pose have been published: one that may illustrate the original by James at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, two in oval format ascribed to Ellen at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Portrait Gallery, London, and three others that vary in clothing and execution (see Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, available at www.pastellists.com, nos. J.675.724, .726, .73, .734, .7372 and .738; in addition, two miniatures of this pose, one in watercolor on ivory by Ellen, are known). It is not known precisely when Washington sat for Sharples, but this pose may have been captured in 1796-1797 in Philadelphia at the same time the profile likeness was first taken. The pose is also reminiscent of a 1794 miniature by Walter Robertson and may have derived in part from Robertson’s rendition (“George Washington,” National Portrait Gallery (UK), online entry for NPG 2903; Cincinnati Art Museum, acc. no. 1991.415).
The pastel portrait at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery may illustrate the original work in this pose by James from which Ellen made copies (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, acc. no. K993; Katharine McCook Knox, The Sharples: Their Portraits of George Washington and His Contemporaries (1930; reprint, New York, 1972), p. 14). Closely following the delineation of the sitter’s features and clothing seen in the Bristol Museum’s work, the portrait offered here varies in the subtlety of modelling that likely indicates the authorship of another hand. It compares favorably to a miniature thought to be by Ellen as well as to a pencil sketch that is part of an 1803 album of Ellen’s drawings (fig. 1) (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, acc. nos. K1060, Mb801.001). In her diaries, Ellen mentioned several times that she copied her husband’s portraits, including those of Washington. During their first years in Philadelphia beginning in 1796, she noted that “Mr. S. was generally engaged drawing in crayons the portraits of the most distinguished Americans… Copies were frequently required; these I undertook and was so far successful as to have as many commissions as I could execute; they were thought equal to the originals, price the same: we lived in a good style associating with the first society” (cited in Knox, p. 13). In December 1804, after the family had moved back to England, she lists many of her portraits of that year, including in miniature “2nd of Gen. Washington, executed in a very superior style to the one done of him last year” and in December 1809, when the family were in New York, her endeavors included “in crayons the copies of Gen. Washington, Gen. Hamilton … from originals drawn by Mrs. S. on our first visit to America” (Knox, pp. 118, 120).
The early history of the portrait is unknown, but it was acquired before 1917 by prominent collector Herbert Lee Pratt (1871-1945) from the Frank T. Sabin Art Gallery in London. Head of Standard Oil in the 1920s and later its chairman, Pratt was one of the wealthiest industrialists of his day. He amassed a large art collection focusing on portraiture, much of which adorned his country estate, The Braes, in Glen Cove, Long Island. He also owned a profile portrait of Washington by James Sharples and during his lifetime, the two portraits featured in the same publications and a 1931-1932 exhibition at the Grolier Club in New York (see Christie’s, New York, January 22, 2021, lot 113). Both pastels were inherited by his daughter, Harriet Balsdon Pratt (1901-1978), wife of Lawrence Van Ingen and subsequently Donald Fairfax Bush (1901-1985). It is not known when the portraits left her possession, but both were later in the Boston area, with the example offered here acquired by George C. Seybolt (1914-1993), a president of the William Underwood Company and a leading figure in the arts. President emeritus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Seybolt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as first chairman of the National Museum Services Board. The portrait was subsequently acquired by Irene Roosevelt Aitken (1931-2025) and is being sold, along with much of her renowned eighteenth-century collection to benefit the three New York institutions named above (see Christie’s, New York, series of sales of the Irene Roosevelt Aitken collection, February 11-18, 2026).
Christie’s would like to thank pastellist scholar and author Neil Jeffares for assisting in the cataloguing of this work.
The pastel portrait at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery may illustrate the original work in this pose by James from which Ellen made copies (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, acc. no. K993; Katharine McCook Knox, The Sharples: Their Portraits of George Washington and His Contemporaries (1930; reprint, New York, 1972), p. 14). Closely following the delineation of the sitter’s features and clothing seen in the Bristol Museum’s work, the portrait offered here varies in the subtlety of modelling that likely indicates the authorship of another hand. It compares favorably to a miniature thought to be by Ellen as well as to a pencil sketch that is part of an 1803 album of Ellen’s drawings (fig. 1) (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, acc. nos. K1060, Mb801.001). In her diaries, Ellen mentioned several times that she copied her husband’s portraits, including those of Washington. During their first years in Philadelphia beginning in 1796, she noted that “Mr. S. was generally engaged drawing in crayons the portraits of the most distinguished Americans… Copies were frequently required; these I undertook and was so far successful as to have as many commissions as I could execute; they were thought equal to the originals, price the same: we lived in a good style associating with the first society” (cited in Knox, p. 13). In December 1804, after the family had moved back to England, she lists many of her portraits of that year, including in miniature “2nd of Gen. Washington, executed in a very superior style to the one done of him last year” and in December 1809, when the family were in New York, her endeavors included “in crayons the copies of Gen. Washington, Gen. Hamilton … from originals drawn by Mrs. S. on our first visit to America” (Knox, pp. 118, 120).
The early history of the portrait is unknown, but it was acquired before 1917 by prominent collector Herbert Lee Pratt (1871-1945) from the Frank T. Sabin Art Gallery in London. Head of Standard Oil in the 1920s and later its chairman, Pratt was one of the wealthiest industrialists of his day. He amassed a large art collection focusing on portraiture, much of which adorned his country estate, The Braes, in Glen Cove, Long Island. He also owned a profile portrait of Washington by James Sharples and during his lifetime, the two portraits featured in the same publications and a 1931-1932 exhibition at the Grolier Club in New York (see Christie’s, New York, January 22, 2021, lot 113). Both pastels were inherited by his daughter, Harriet Balsdon Pratt (1901-1978), wife of Lawrence Van Ingen and subsequently Donald Fairfax Bush (1901-1985). It is not known when the portraits left her possession, but both were later in the Boston area, with the example offered here acquired by George C. Seybolt (1914-1993), a president of the William Underwood Company and a leading figure in the arts. President emeritus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Seybolt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as first chairman of the National Museum Services Board. The portrait was subsequently acquired by Irene Roosevelt Aitken (1931-2025) and is being sold, along with much of her renowned eighteenth-century collection to benefit the three New York institutions named above (see Christie’s, New York, series of sales of the Irene Roosevelt Aitken collection, February 11-18, 2026).
Christie’s would like to thank pastellist scholar and author Neil Jeffares for assisting in the cataloguing of this work.