April 2015
Arab museum buys Gilbert Stewart portrait of George Washington
Breaking NewsThat’s right, the Persian Gulf. This fall the Arab emirate of Abu Dhabi opened a branch of the Louvre Museum, part of a long term agreement with the French government. Not a few people were startled when museum officials in Abu Dhabi announced they had paid the Armand Hammer Foundation a hefty undisclosed sum for a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. Recent sales of Stuart portraits have been in the $8 million range.
This 1822 painting shows the first American president sitting at a desk, one hand resting on a document, the other cradling a sword hilt. In this late era version, Stuart added a rainbow in the sky outside Washington’s red-velvet curtained window. Arab museum officials saw it as a symbol of hope for a new nation. The portrait will be displayed beside Jacques Louis-David’s epic painting, “Napoleon Crossing the Alps,” which is on loan from the Palace of Versailles. Americans should be pleased to discover that George Washington can speak to people so distant and different from the world he knew.
comments powered by Disqus
News
- One Absurdity of Texas's Divisive Concepts Law? Call to Rename Slave Trade as "Involuntary Relocation"
- 3 Law Profs: Connecting Abortion and Voting Rights at SCOTUS
- The Other Cancel Culture: A University Administration Caves to a Conservative Crusade
- Unserved Warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham's Arrest in Till Lynching Discovered in Box in Courthouse Basement
- 1989-2001: America's "Lost Weekend" When the Nation Blew its Shot at Peace and Prosperity