An icon for Yale: a miniature portrait of George Washington by Robert Field fetches nearly ten times its presale estimate and gives the Yale University Art Gallery a companion piece to its Martha.(END notes)

Not all the about the economy in general--and as related to the decorative arts and painting in particular--is bad, Late last year Skinner in Boston auctioned a miniature of George Washington by Robert Field that fetched more than $300,000--some ten times its presale estimate. According to the portrait miniature specialist Elle Shushan of Philadelphia, who was the successful bidder on behalf of the Yale University Art Gallery, this is the second or third highest price ever paid for an American portrait miniature. The record ($1,216,00) was set in the palmier days of early 2001 for another Washington miniature, that one painted from life by John Ramage in 1789 and now in a private collection.

Field's Washington was painted posthumously but has an important and impeccable provenance. To mark the anniversary of her husbands death in 1799, Martha Washington commissioned Field, one of the most highly sought after miniaturists of his day, to paint eight portraits of her husband for presentation to friends and family. Six show him in civilian dress, while two depict him as a general in full uniform. These last were given to Martha's step-granddaughters, Anne Calvert Stuart and Sarah "Sally" Stuart. The present miniature--which includes a woven lock of Washington s hair in the locket case--descended in Sally's family.

Although Field may have visited Washington at Mount Vernon in 1798, the portraits painted for the Stuart girls were likely based in large part on a miniature by Walter Robertson, which Field apparently purchased form him in 1795. Confirming that even then a Washington miniature commanded a premium, Field wrote to his friend and patron Robert Gilmor Jr. of Baltimore: Robertson's portrait "is as good a likeness as fine a piece of painting as I ever saw. ... I should be glad to purchase if the price he asks was not so extravagant--(viz. 1000 Dolls)"--more than $17,000 today.

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