Gibbs-Coolidge Paintings

In the National Gallery of Art

Five 1821 Portraits of the first five presidents of the United States by Gilbert Stuart hang in Gallery 60A in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. These five paintings were commissioned by Colonel George Gibbs (1776-1833).

Colonel George Gibbs
By Gilbert Stuart

Thomas Jefferson Coolidge (1831-1920) of Boston bought the paintings from Gibbs' heirs in 1872 and passed them down through several generations of Thomas Jefferson Coolidges.

Thomas Jefferson Coolidge
From his Autobiography published in 1923.
Frederick J. Bradlee in a biographical article about Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III includes this anecdote.

“Portraits of the first five Presidents of the United States by Gilbert Stuart have graced his walls for many years, when not being generously loaned to museums for special exhibitions. An interesting story is told of how his grandfather, from whom he inherited them, acquired them. It seems that a Virginian gentleman in the early part of the nineteenth century built himself a handsome house and was in somewhat of a quandary as to how to decorate the walls of his dining room. He finally decided that portraits of the first five Presidents would under the circumstances be adequate and appropriate. Accordingly, he commissioned Gilbert Stuart to paint them, and they were duly installed and remained there until his death in the 1870's. Coolidge's grandfather somehow learned that the executors of the estate desired to sell them. He, therefore, wrote to inquire of them if this were true, and if so, their price. In due time he received a reply saying that in deed they were for sale and the price $3,000 for the five. Whereupon Mr. Coolidge was reported to have written a blistering letter to the effect that he considered the price exorbitant, but, luckily for his descendants, he took the precaution of including his check for the amount asked.” — Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, by Frederick J. Bradlee Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, Vol. 72 (Oct., 1957 - Dec., 1960), pp.374-375.

Thomas Jefferson Coolidge IV gave/sold the collection to the National Portrait Gallery in 1979. The portraits of Washington and Jefferson were gifts to the Gallery and say on their labels “Gift of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge IV in memory of his great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge II, and his father, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III.” The other three portraits, were sold to the Gallery. They were rumored to have cost the Gallery's Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund $1 million which the Washington Post, said “is half of the appraised value of the five-portraits set.”

Coolidge told the Post that he decided to part with the paintings “for reasons of security. They were hanging in my mother's house, in Manchester, by the sea,... They're painted on wood. We were worried about the effect the cold winters and hot summers there would have on their condition.”

	Gibbs Cooldige Paintings