New York, January – Christie's auction house will put up for sale next January in New York one of the most iconic portraits of former US President George Washington (1789-1797), a work that inspired the design of the one-dollar bill. The painting, by the renowned portraitist Gilbert Stuart, will be auctioned on January 23 with an estimate between $500,000 and one million dollars. According to specialists, the portrait was commissioned in 1804 by James Madison, who would later become the fourth President of the United States while serving as Secretary of State during Thomas Jefferson's administration. The portrait is part of a series of over one hundred images of Washington made by Stuart that served as a model for the iconic image on the one-dollar bill. The auction house also highlights Stuart's "virtuosity," considered one of the great portraitists of his time, and the historical value of the painting as a testament to the bond between two central figures in the country's founding. Washington and Madison maintained a close and collaborative relationship, though they experienced political tensions from 1790, when Madison aligned with Thomas Jefferson and the anti-federalist faction, in opposition to the federalist movement led by Alexander Hamilton. The differences deepened with the approval of the Jay Treaty in 1795, which regulated relations between the United States and Great Britain after the Revolutionary War. However, for Christie's, the commissioning of the portrait demonstrates "Madison's unwavering loyalty to Washington." After Madison's death and that of his wife, the work was sold at a public auction in 1851 for $300. The painting was initially exhibited at Montpelier, Madison's residence in Virginia, and later at the home of his widow, Dolley Madison, in Washington. Christie's noted that the painting shows Washington in a ruffled shirt and a sober expression, and that "it reflects the reverence and respect that those who knew the first President of the United States closely had for him." The buyer was a "New York gentleman" who, according to historical records, may have been William Henry Aspinwall, a 19th-century influential American businessman.
