Photo courtesy of the Reading Public Museum: George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1795, pictured in its new frame, is now on display at the Reading Public Museum.

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Read the full article below, re-posted from Berks Weekly…

Reading Public Museum debuts new frame on portrait of George Washington

By Berks Weekly – April 5, 2025, 12:43 pm

The Reading Public Museum has announced the successful acquisition of a rare and important plasterwork frame to house its portrait of George Washington by painter Gilbert Stuart. The painting and its new frame are now on display in The Museum’s Jerome I. Marcus American Art Gallery.

The Museum’s Curatorial Department frequently peruses auction catalogues to keep abreast of art market trends, and to spot potential acquisitions that will soon cross the auction block. In one such search, a museum-quality ornate plasterwork frame decorated with an eagle, stars, and American flag motifs, and bearing a plaque with the artist’s name ‘GILBERT STUART’ captured the attention of Director Geoff Fleming. Since 1939, a bust-length portrait of George Washington (referred to as The Jonas Miller-Cake-Joseph Stewart Portrait) by famed American portraitist Gilbert Stuart (1755 – 1828) has been an important part of The Museum’s American art collection.

The portrait was previously housed in a worn, plaster poor quality frame that had lost much of its original gilding. As luck would have it, the dimensions of The Museum’s portrait perfectly aligned with the frame coming up at auction. The overall grandeur, matching size, presidential theme, and the artist’s name on the plaque made acquiring this frame an opportunity that could not be missed. On January 18, after nail biting back and forth bidding, the Reading Public Museum was victorious.

“The moment that I saw the frame, it struck me as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire something of this importance and quality for our Gilbert Stuart portrait. We are so delighted to have beaten out so many other bidders to win this for The Museum and our community,” remarked Fleming.

The importance of a fitting frame for a work of art cannot be understated. In the words of Emma Crichton-Miller: “Frames are the Cinderellas of the art world; they do a tremendous amount of work. They protect the artworks they support; they show off the qualities of a picture…and they mould the response of the viewer to the work by suggesting the value we should attach to it…At their best, they are works of art, carved by the foremost sculptors of their day, and yet their own brilliance must also serve that of the paintings they encase.”

The frame dates to the middle of the nineteenth century and once was owned by the noted Washington, DC art dealer Victor G. Fisher. Victor Geza Fisher (1848 – 1925), born ‘Victor Fischer’ in Budapest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, immigrated to the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1886. He was an artist and owner of the Victor G. Fisher Art Company on Fifteenth Street in Washington DC, which specialized in old master paintings.

Fisher was also a noted art critic, trustee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and served as a consultant on the restoration of Washington, DC’s portrait collection in 1900. Following his retirement in 1911, his gallery collection was sold at Anderson Galleries in New York City in February of 1912. Totaling over 1,200 lots and sold in multiple sale sessions, the collection included bronzes, French and Asian decorative arts, American and European paintings and sculptures, among them being a Corot landscape now in the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia.

The union of this frame and painting is not only a rare achievement but is fitting for one of the most historically recognizable and important paintings in RPM’s collection. The painting will be on display through August.

The Reading Public Museum is located at 500 Museum Road, Reading, PA. Admission per day is: $10 adults (18-64), $6 children/seniors/college students (w/ID), and free to Members and children three years old and under. The Museum is open daily 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. readingpublicmuseum.org

Reading Public Museum debuts new frame on portrait of George Washington