Lot 1: - Italian, circa 1816 After Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751-1802) , portrait bust of George Washington white marble

white marble

measurements note 57cm., 22½in.

This marble bust of Washington relates closely to another version of the model in the collection of the White House. Both busts, carved with bare chests all'antica and squared bases, are after Guiseppi Ceracchi's portrait of Washington in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Although the White House version has sometimes been attributed to Raimondo Trentanove, recent research would suggest that the model is rather by Massimiliano Ravenna. In 1809 Thomas Appleton, the American consul at Livorno, acquired the original plaster model of Ceracchi's portrait from his fellow Consul, William Lee in Bordeaux. Lee had multiplied the likeness on a small scale before he sold the plaster, and Appleton continued to do so, exporting the busts to the United States for sale. In 1816 Appleton paid Ravenna 100 francs for four "Busts of Washington to be Deliver'd & Afterwards to be sent to the U. S." They were to be sold for $80 each. Appleton later sent four larger-than-life and two colossal versions of the portrait. It seems likely that the present bust, like the White House version, can be identified as one of the four busts commissioned by Appleton in 1816. Another version of the model was sold at Christies New York for $83,650 (15-16 January 2004, lot 522.)

RELATED LITERATURE
Fehl, pp. 123-151; Sicca (2003), pp. 275-97; Sicca (2005), pp. 78-85