LONDON.- On 10 December 2015, Sotheby’s will offer at auction a rare lifetime portrait bust of George Washington, America’s first President. This exquisite gilt-bronze sculpture is an important work from the celebrated Royal Laboratory established by King Charles III of Spain in Madrid in 1759. Dating to the 1790s, the bust was commissioned to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of San Lorenzo with the United States, which declared a state of mutual friendship between the two nations. Estimated at £200,000-300,000, it will be offered in Sotheby’s sale of Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art in London.

Christopher Mason, Sotheby’s Old Master Sculpture Specialist, said: “The modelling and execution is of the highest quality and the identity of the sitter is unmistakable. Washington is Presidential in his demeanor, the sharpness of the bronze casting seemingly reflecting the Enlightenment values of this victorious democratic leader.”

The bust appears to be based on a painting of Washington by Giuseppe Perovani, commissioned by the Spanish chargé d'affairs in Philadelphia, Josef de Jaudenes y Nebot, and gifted to Prime Minister Manuel Godoy in 1796. Washington likewise appears as a statesman, his iconic wig concealing his hair, his elegant frockcoat open, exposing the unbuttoned waistcoat and chemise underneath. The argument for Perovani’s portrait bust having served as the model for this piece is strengthened by the fact that such a bust from the Royal Laboratory can only have been commissioned by a high ranking member of the Spanish court. Aside from King Charles IV, Godoy is the obvious candidate, considering he owned the portrait and secured a coup with the signing of the treaty.

The bust stands on an elaborate columnar socle made with richly coloured marbles from across Spain. The virtuoso carving is comparable with the finest works constructed by the Real Laboratorio de Piedras y Mosaico, established by King Charles III of Spain at the Buen Retiro Palace. Prior to his accession to the throne, he had resided in Naples as the King of the Two Sicilies, where he gained an appreciation for the Italian art of pietre dure (hardstone inlay). The King brought craftsman from Italy, who trained a generation of Spanish artisans. The Royal Laboratory was also famed for its superb gilt-bronzework, which was informed by French techniques brought to Madrid. The most dominant international style to emerge in the last decades of the eighteenth century was Neoclassicism, and the Laboratory’s output came to be infused with a cool classicism, as demonstrated in this sculpture of George Washington.

The context leading up to the creation of the Bust of George Washington is rooted in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in which Spain covertly supported the thirteen original colonies with funds and resources, and engaged Britain in open warfare, thereby increasing the strain on the British war effort. After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Spain was ceded Louisiana, and, later, at the Peace of Paris of 1783, was given control of West Florida (incorporating the Southern parts of modern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama) and East Florida. The boundaries of West Florida had never been agreed, leading to tension with the United States in the years after the Peace of Paris. When, in 1794, Britain and America signed the so-called Jay Treaty, a declaration of amity, Prime Minister Manuel Godoy panicked, fearing the security of Spain's colonies in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1796, the Prime Minister invited the American Ambassador to Britain, Thomas Pinckney, to Madrid, where they struck up a firm friendship; the Treaty of San Lorenzo was signed at the El Escorial on 27 October 1795. By the terms of the agreement, Spain ceded to all of Pinckney's demands, settling the question of the border of West Florida to America's advantage, and giving American ships free navigation of the Mississippi river and the use of New Orleans as a port.

Though the terms of the treaty were not advantageous to Spain, the signing was an important diplomatic milestone. The bust was almost certainly commissioned to commemorate the event, and Godoy’s hope for a lasting friendship between Spain and the United States. Within a year Godoy was out of office, Spain was facing rebellion in its North American lands, and, in 1799, America would mourn the death of its first President.