Portrait could fetch $15 million

A life-size 1779 portrait of George Washington, projected to sell for as much as $15 million at Christie’s International, will be one of the highlights of this week’s Americana auctions in New York. Christie’s and Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. are hoping to bring in $61.5 million during the auctions that begin Friday.

The 8-foot-tall Washington canvas, by 18th century Philadelphia painter Charles Willson Peale, depicts a heroic (though pear-shaped) future president leaning on a cannon in the battlefield. Christie’s says there are eight versions of the full-length portrait, six of which are in museums.

The painting first sold in the 1780s to a Spanish duke for $122. New York collectors J. Insley Blair and his wife bought it in 1919 for $13,100. The Blair heirs have consigned the Peale and 639 other lots, including a rare painted 1729 chest that’s expected to sell for as much as $800,000.

Though the Peale is undoubtedly important, the auction market has seen no shortage of Washington portraits. In November, Sotheby’s offered four on behalf of the New York Public Library.