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Lot Essay
Distinguished by its original frame and printseller’s label that allows it to be dated prior to 1803, this pastel portrait of George Washington is an important early survival of the celebrated renditions of America’s first president by English-born artist, James Sharples (1752-1811) and his immediate family. In 1853, George Washington’s adopted son George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857) declared two pastel portraits to be “the most truthful likeness of Washington, ever taken of that great ‘Father of his Country.’” Both portraits were profile likenesses taken by Sharples; one facing right, is now in the collections of Mount Vernon, and the other, facing left, a version closely related to the portrait offered here.1 Custis also considered Sharples’ pastel portraits alongside the renowned works of Gilbert Stuart and Charles Willson Peale and concluded “Stuart is the great original of the First President of the U.S., Peale of the Colonial Officer, Sharpless of the man.”2
The accuracy of Sharples’ portraits was in part due to the use of a physiognotrace, a mechanical device that with a light source projecting a shadow on a screen allowed the artist to follow or “trace” the contours of his sitter’s face in profile. After taking Washington’s image from life in 1796, Sharples, along with his family members, wife Ellen (1769-1849), sons George (b. 1775), Felix (1786-1830), James, Jr. (1789-1839), and daughter Rolinda (1793-1838), produced numerous replicas, each hand-colored and the vast majority, as seen here, showing the sitter in his Presidential garb against a vibrant blue background. Related examples are in many renowned public and private collections, including the National Portrait Gallery (London), the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
Remarkably, the portrait appears to have never been unframed in its 225-year history. The gilded frame is typical of the circa 1800 period and its wooden backboard, taped in place, appears undisturbed. Engraved in elegant script, a paper label affixed to the backboard bears the name and address of Benjamin Beale Evans (1758-1803), an engraver and printseller who worked at the corner of Poultry and Old Jewry Streets from about 1787 until his death in 1803.3 Evans was born in Old Swinford, Worcester, just west of Birmingham, and by 1779 had moved to London where he apprenticed with John Boydell (1719-1804), the most significant publisher in eighteenth-century England.4 In 1783, while still working under Boydell, Evans engraved a profile portrait of Washington, as well as the American peace commissioners at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, perhaps an indication of his support for the American victory in the War of Independence.5 Numerous examples of Evans’s work as an engraver survive, including a work entitled “Joseph Presenting his Father Jacob to the Pharoah,” which bears a gilded frame closely related to the present work with the same repeating lamb’s-tongue border.6
Executed before 1803, this portrait was very likely rendered in America prior to the Sharples’ return to England in 1801. Minor variations exist among the survivals including in the shaping of the upper lip, the hairline forward of the ear, and the shirt ruffle. In these details, the portrait offered here is identical to that in the National Portrait Gallery, which can be dated to 1796-1797 based on a label written by Washington’s step-granddaughter, Eliza Parke Custis (1776-1831). There's a softness in the shaping of the arm and hair queue that may indicate a collaborative effort with a family member. Ellen, in particular, was making numerous copies of her husband's work at this time. Reminiscing of their early years in Philadelphia, she later recalled "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."7 In an unframed state, it could have been easily brought with the family when they sailed for England in 1801. It could also have been replicated from other copies brought over while the family resided in Bath. During this time, James Sharples made trips to London on his own, and as noted by Ellen, invariably lodged at Furnival’s Inn Coffee House.8 Located on Holborn, these lodgings were just a twenty-minute walk along a main thoroughfare from Evans’s premises on the Poultry.
As documented by a letter accompanying the sale of the portrait, the earliest known history of the portrait is its presence in Chilton House in Chilton, Buckinghamshire in the 1920s. The letter with accompanying information on Sharples was written by Arthur Du Cane (1866-1942), a wealthy collector who owned three properties including 15, Welbeck Street, London, the address on the letter’s letterhead.9 Addressed to “Mrs. Cross,” and dated merely “August 8th,” the letter would have been written while the current owner’s great-grandparents, James Carlton Cross (1864-1959) and his wife Marian Gertrude Hibbert (1871- 1952), lived at Chilton House, from about 1923 to 1929. Cross was the Managing Director of Crosses and Winkworth, cotton manufacturers in the Manchester area originally established by his grandfather, John Cross (1794-1868). By 1929, the family had moved to London, living at 4 Green Street near Grosvenor Square. The portrait descended to James and Marian Cross’s eldest son, Ronald Hibbert Cross (1896-1968), who served during World War I and pursued a career in merchant banking before entering politics. He served as Minister of Shipping and Minister of Economic warfare in Churchill’s War Cabinet from 1939 to 1941, when he was made 1st Baronet. From 1941 to 1945, he served as British High Commissioner to Australia and then, from 1951 to 1958, as Governor of Tasmania before retiring and returning to England. The portrait has since descended directly in the family.
Christie’s would like to thank pastellist scholar and author Neil Jeffares for his assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
ENDNOTES
1 Custis to Henry Bowers, September 26, 1853, cited in Christie’s, New York, January 21, 2022, lot 348.
2 “George Washington Parke Custis’s Opinion of Portraits of Washington,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 18, no. 1 (1894), p. 83.
3 Evans’s burial is listed on April 2, 1803 in the parish records of St Mary Colechurch, which at that time had combined with St Mildred Poultry; see “Saint Mary Le Bow, City of London, 1770-1812,” London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, available at ancestry.com. Previously, Evans was noted to have died around 1824, when Evans’s stock of copperplates was sold. However, the advertisement for this sale notes that the plates “have remained in an undisturbed state for the last 20 years” and previously, in 1804 and 1805, the premises and some of Evans’s stock were sold. See, The Times, October 27, 1804, p. 4, The Morning Chronicle, March 11, 1805, p. 4 and May 6, 1824, p. 4.
4 “Benjamin Bale Evans,” the son of Meredith and Mary, is recorded as being baptised on April 20, 1758, in Old Swinford, Worcestershire, posted by TheGenealogist2018 on ancestry.com; this date is supported by the notice of Evans’s death in 1803 at the age of forty five noted above and his father’s name is included in the following petition, confirming it is the same individual as the printseller. A petition filed by Evans, February 21, 1786 notes that he served six years of an apprenticeship with John Boydell “Citizen & Stationer (a Printseller by trade)” beginning on November 2, 1779 and ending on November 8, 1785, London, England Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1930, available at ancestry.com.
5 For the Washington engraving, see National Galleries Scotland, acc. no. PGE 87.123, available at https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/43628. See also, Ian Maxted, “The London book trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members,” Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History, available at https://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/london-1775-1800-e.html.
6 Evans’s print of Joseph is in the collection of The Argory, County Armagh, Ireland, see www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/565050.
7 Cited in Katharine McCook Knox, The Sharples (1930; reprint, New York, 1972), p. 13. Current scholarship notes the difficulty in distinguishing the works of James and Ellen Sharples. See Neil Jeffares, “Sharples, James,” Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online edition, available at http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Sharples.pdf.
8 Knox, p. 20.
9 See https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/196354210/arthur_george-du_cane.
The accuracy of Sharples’ portraits was in part due to the use of a physiognotrace, a mechanical device that with a light source projecting a shadow on a screen allowed the artist to follow or “trace” the contours of his sitter’s face in profile. After taking Washington’s image from life in 1796, Sharples, along with his family members, wife Ellen (1769-1849), sons George (b. 1775), Felix (1786-1830), James, Jr. (1789-1839), and daughter Rolinda (1793-1838), produced numerous replicas, each hand-colored and the vast majority, as seen here, showing the sitter in his Presidential garb against a vibrant blue background. Related examples are in many renowned public and private collections, including the National Portrait Gallery (London), the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.
Remarkably, the portrait appears to have never been unframed in its 225-year history. The gilded frame is typical of the circa 1800 period and its wooden backboard, taped in place, appears undisturbed. Engraved in elegant script, a paper label affixed to the backboard bears the name and address of Benjamin Beale Evans (1758-1803), an engraver and printseller who worked at the corner of Poultry and Old Jewry Streets from about 1787 until his death in 1803.3 Evans was born in Old Swinford, Worcester, just west of Birmingham, and by 1779 had moved to London where he apprenticed with John Boydell (1719-1804), the most significant publisher in eighteenth-century England.4 In 1783, while still working under Boydell, Evans engraved a profile portrait of Washington, as well as the American peace commissioners at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, perhaps an indication of his support for the American victory in the War of Independence.5 Numerous examples of Evans’s work as an engraver survive, including a work entitled “Joseph Presenting his Father Jacob to the Pharoah,” which bears a gilded frame closely related to the present work with the same repeating lamb’s-tongue border.6
Executed before 1803, this portrait was very likely rendered in America prior to the Sharples’ return to England in 1801. Minor variations exist among the survivals including in the shaping of the upper lip, the hairline forward of the ear, and the shirt ruffle. In these details, the portrait offered here is identical to that in the National Portrait Gallery, which can be dated to 1796-1797 based on a label written by Washington’s step-granddaughter, Eliza Parke Custis (1776-1831). There's a softness in the shaping of the arm and hair queue that may indicate a collaborative effort with a family member. Ellen, in particular, was making numerous copies of her husband's work at this time. Reminiscing of their early years in Philadelphia, she later recalled "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."7 In an unframed state, it could have been easily brought with the family when they sailed for England in 1801. It could also have been replicated from other copies brought over while the family resided in Bath. During this time, James Sharples made trips to London on his own, and as noted by Ellen, invariably lodged at Furnival’s Inn Coffee House.8 Located on Holborn, these lodgings were just a twenty-minute walk along a main thoroughfare from Evans’s premises on the Poultry.
As documented by a letter accompanying the sale of the portrait, the earliest known history of the portrait is its presence in Chilton House in Chilton, Buckinghamshire in the 1920s. The letter with accompanying information on Sharples was written by Arthur Du Cane (1866-1942), a wealthy collector who owned three properties including 15, Welbeck Street, London, the address on the letter’s letterhead.9 Addressed to “Mrs. Cross,” and dated merely “August 8th,” the letter would have been written while the current owner’s great-grandparents, James Carlton Cross (1864-1959) and his wife Marian Gertrude Hibbert (1871- 1952), lived at Chilton House, from about 1923 to 1929. Cross was the Managing Director of Crosses and Winkworth, cotton manufacturers in the Manchester area originally established by his grandfather, John Cross (1794-1868). By 1929, the family had moved to London, living at 4 Green Street near Grosvenor Square. The portrait descended to James and Marian Cross’s eldest son, Ronald Hibbert Cross (1896-1968), who served during World War I and pursued a career in merchant banking before entering politics. He served as Minister of Shipping and Minister of Economic warfare in Churchill’s War Cabinet from 1939 to 1941, when he was made 1st Baronet. From 1941 to 1945, he served as British High Commissioner to Australia and then, from 1951 to 1958, as Governor of Tasmania before retiring and returning to England. The portrait has since descended directly in the family.
Christie’s would like to thank pastellist scholar and author Neil Jeffares for his assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
ENDNOTES
1 Custis to Henry Bowers, September 26, 1853, cited in Christie’s, New York, January 21, 2022, lot 348.
2 “George Washington Parke Custis’s Opinion of Portraits of Washington,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 18, no. 1 (1894), p. 83.
3 Evans’s burial is listed on April 2, 1803 in the parish records of St Mary Colechurch, which at that time had combined with St Mildred Poultry; see “Saint Mary Le Bow, City of London, 1770-1812,” London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, available at ancestry.com. Previously, Evans was noted to have died around 1824, when Evans’s stock of copperplates was sold. However, the advertisement for this sale notes that the plates “have remained in an undisturbed state for the last 20 years” and previously, in 1804 and 1805, the premises and some of Evans’s stock were sold. See, The Times, October 27, 1804, p. 4, The Morning Chronicle, March 11, 1805, p. 4 and May 6, 1824, p. 4.
4 “Benjamin Bale Evans,” the son of Meredith and Mary, is recorded as being baptised on April 20, 1758, in Old Swinford, Worcestershire, posted by TheGenealogist2018 on ancestry.com; this date is supported by the notice of Evans’s death in 1803 at the age of forty five noted above and his father’s name is included in the following petition, confirming it is the same individual as the printseller. A petition filed by Evans, February 21, 1786 notes that he served six years of an apprenticeship with John Boydell “Citizen & Stationer (a Printseller by trade)” beginning on November 2, 1779 and ending on November 8, 1785, London, England Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681-1930, available at ancestry.com.
5 For the Washington engraving, see National Galleries Scotland, acc. no. PGE 87.123, available at https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/43628. See also, Ian Maxted, “The London book trades 1775-1800: a preliminary checklist of members,” Exeter Working Papers in British Book Trade History, available at https://bookhistory.blogspot.com/2007/01/london-1775-1800-e.html.
6 Evans’s print of Joseph is in the collection of The Argory, County Armagh, Ireland, see www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/565050.
7 Cited in Katharine McCook Knox, The Sharples (1930; reprint, New York, 1972), p. 13. Current scholarship notes the difficulty in distinguishing the works of James and Ellen Sharples. See Neil Jeffares, “Sharples, James,” Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online edition, available at http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Sharples.pdf.
8 Knox, p. 20.
9 See https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/196354210/arthur_george-du_cane.